The Corrupted City
by Hitomi Zotz
Summary: Sequel to The Traitor Within. Rick Stetler is now Lieutenant in Homicide & forced to start his new career with a serial killer. Horatio, trying to get on with his personal life, is reluctant to be pulled into this new horror but with a senator's daughter dead he can't say no & Rick needs the help. Will work endanger their family lives? Is this one case too many for the pair?
1. Chapter 1- Victim Number One

_Sequel to The Traitor Within and The Garrett House Horrors. _

* * *

"There's something bad out there."

Kara Watkins finished fastening her diamond droplet earring to her left ear before giving her younger brother a look of scorn coupled with a sardonic smile. "Something Mike?" she echoed. "What sort of something?"

The siblings were seated in the large living room of their family's impressive mansion. It was brightly lit with four large lamps and discreet spotlights in the ceiling in addition to the glow from the widescreen television set on the wall opposite the plush, crimson and gold brocade sofa Kara occupied.

Michael, younger than Kara by eight years, was seated on a cushion on the wide, wooden, interior windowsill. His nose was pressed up against the tall, arched window and peering out into the gloom of the night.

Kara stood up from the sofa with a sparkling crystal and pink satin clutch purse in her right hand. With her free hand she pushed her blonde curls over her bare shoulders before striding over to her brother. Her heels left deep imprints in the thick, fuzzy, pale gold carpet as she walked.

"Come on Mike, don't keep me in suspense," she said chirpily.

Kara paused to stare outside. Their expansive garden was mostly in shadow as only a few of the lights were on. Their mother always said it was a waste of energy to have them all on if no one was out there. She hadn't appreciated Kara's suggestion that they have solar lights instead. Given how sunny Miami usually was, Kara couldn't understand the issue with solar lights.

Mike raised a single finger slowly and pressed it against a pane of glass. "Just there," he murmured.

Kara followed where he was pointing and looked out into the gloom in confusion. "Mike I don't-" Kara's voice caught in her throat as for a moment something moved out there.

Kara saw a shadowy figure moving close to the trees. Her blue eyes grew wide as she watched them stride purposely forward in their direction. She was almost ready to scream until they stepped into the path of an orb shaped light and she realised from the torch in their hand and the gun hanging at their belt that it was one of her father's security detail.

Mike started laughing loudly. "Your face!" he taunted his sister.

Kara's shock faded as her face curdled to anger. "Michael you asshole!" she snapped as she swung out at her brother with her free hand.

Kara curled her hand into a fist and punched her brother lightly in the right arm, she meant to shock him rather than hurt him but her anger drove her to put a little more force into the move.

"Hey!" Mike protested. He reached up to clutch at his arm as tears started to pour from his eyes. "That hurt!" he roared angrily.

His face turned red and the tears fell faster as he jumped up from the windowsill and ran to the living room door.

"Little shit," Kara muttered crossly to herself.

Mike opened the door and fled from the room wailing for their mother.

Kara knew she had better leave quickly otherwise her mother was liable to ground her. She hurried from the room, almost running for the front door.

She blushed when she nearly collided with James Hoyes, one of the family bodyguards that always seemed to linger around the house.

James glanced down at the young woman and flashed her a bright, teasing smile. "Is your attempting a marathon in heels and your brother crying for your mother related?" he quipped curiously. His oceanic eyes gleamed with humour.

Kara's cheeks darkened to a ruddy pink as she awkwardly pushed a curl of pale blonde hair back over her right shoulder. "Um maybe but I've somewhere to be anyway," she murmured.

James' light brown eyebrows rose slightly at this. "Well I can see that," he retorted pointedly. "Do you need a lift?"

"Nope, my friend is en route," Kara replied confidently.

"You know I'm going to have to walk you to the car right?"

Kara sighed and glanced over her shoulder. She was surprised she hadn't heard her mother's vodka slurred, rage fuelled yells yet. She turned her stare up to James briskly. "Fine, let's go." She gestured to the door impatiently.

James gave her another smile before he keyed in the alarm code and opened the front door.

The pair escaped to a calm, dry night that was promising to stay pleasant with clear skies. They followed a cream, tiled path, lit on either side with small, star shaped lights, to the large driveway.

One car waited in it, a dented, midnight blue Mercedes with its engine humming low, lights out and a loud roar of energetic pop music escaping from the front windows, both of which were fully down.

Kara smiled at the sight as she saw the driver, a female with dark hair streaked with copper, singing along enthusiastically as she hammered down on her steering wheel with both hands.

"Your ride?" James quipped. He still looked amused.

"Yep," Kara said happily. She shot James a smile. "See you later."

"Don't be too late Kara, no one's going to let you in past midnight," James warned her, "and we all remember how you tripped the alarm last time."

Kara blushed again at the memory. "Right, thanks for that reminder."

"Have a good night Kara," James added sincerely.

"I will, thanks."

Kara hurried over to the car, waving to the driver energetically before she jumped into the passenger seat.

The driver obligingly turned down the music slightly as she started to turn the car. "Evening Kara baby," she greeted merrily as she spun the wheel fast, sending stones from the driveway hurtling through the air.

James watched on with a shake of his head.

"Oh you are just in time Cady," Kara greeted her friend as she reached for the seatbelt. "My little asshole of a brother Mike played a prank on me and when I hit him in response he went squealing to her ladyship. I swear, just two minutes more and she would have pounced on me."

Cady glanced over at her Kara with cheerful brown eyes. "Always glad to be your knight on a blue steed," she said happily.

Cady hit the accelerator hard, taking them dangerously fast and close to the iron gates that guarded the property. She giggled as she slammed the brakes and the car swerved to a halt.

Cady revved the engine impatiently as they waited for the gates to open.

Kara meanwhile tried to compose herself, smiling in an attempt to laugh off her friend's driving even as she felt her heart slam against her chest with alarm. Cady's driving was always a good way to be reminded of one's mortality.

"So, which club are we hitting first?" Kara pried.

"Midnight Secrets," Cady answered as the gates finally swung open and she sped off to the road.

"Never heard of that one," Kara retorted, "sounds like a strip club."

Cady laughed at this. "Doesn't it? But no, it's a classy place, you'll love it, promise."

"Well if you promise," Kara mused sardonically. "As long as there is champagne and good music I'm happy."

* * *

Midnight Secrets was all Cady had promised and more. The queue for it had gone on forever, down the length of the street and then round the block. Even the waiting list had a small queue gathering at the infamous red rope which could offer entry or bar it. Kara was not pleased to learn Cady had gotten them onto the list by name dropping Kara's father. At Cady's promise of two rounds on her, Kara had attempted to shrug off her rage before they entered the club.

Kara spent three hours in the club.

It had three floors, each purposely dimly lit, furnished with black ceilings with winking white lights designed to mimic stars, booths with seats of dark blue velvet and tables painted in a deep purple, and dark wooden floors. Even the bar areas and dance floors had a limited light. The strobe lights were shades of white, silver and gold with the occasionally beam of blue or violet.

Once Kara adjusted to the gloom she could see it wasn't so dark that people were liable to bump into each other. The lights were subtle and carefully placed, just enough to avoid a lawsuit and invoke a sense of mystery rather than confusion.

It also meant there were many, many areas for people to hook up, make out and, in some private areas shrouded from public viewing by heavy curtain drapes, do much, much more.

The clientele was an eyeful as were the staff. The place seemed to have hired low key models as waiters and waitresses and had them all dressed suggestively in tight garments of midnight blue laced with silver. Their uniforms were just enough to be tasteful rather than tacky.

Kara didn't know where to look but that was the point. She and Cady were here for some action so it was nice to have some choice.

It was just after they had been there an hour that Kara was chatted up by a tall, toned, brunette male with an easygoing confidence and charm.

Two hours later and Kara and Cady had drifted past tipsy from the drinks the male and his companions had bought for them. It led to a merry Kara and Cady jumping onto a table and linking arms to give the men a display of some mock tangoing before they spun each other around and Cady fell off the table. Luckily, she was caught by a waiting man.

By the third hour Kara knew she was too far gone. Everything was spinning, she was starting to feel nauseous and all she could think of was a need for air.

The young blonde stumbled to her feet and cursed as her heels gave way and her shoes slumped sideways. She staggered forward awkwardly before grasping a column for support.

Feeling the vomit stir in her stomach she gave a groan before glancing down at her shoes accusingly. They were a blur. Forgetting how much they cost, Kara tried to bend down to unfasten the straps.

Kara fell hard on her rear with the effort. She let out a giggle at herself before reaching for the straps of her shoes again. "Off, off," she muttered to herself.

Most of the club goers didn't even notice her, she was by the tables and chairs, not blocking anyone's passage yet and not making enough noise to be audible over the music.

"Yes!" Kara exclaimed happily to herself as she freed the straps. She kicked off the shoes, reached for a chair and used it to get herself to her feet again.

Feeling vomit movement again, Kara raised a hand to her mouth and let out a soft belch. "You need air girl, yep, air," she murmured to herself.

She started walking again and was surprised and angry when her feet still stumbled. "Hey!" she snapped angrily as she looked down at them. She wagged a finger at them scornfully. "Lesh...get it together...yeah, you're a mess, come on."

Kara started stumbling forward again. With effort she made it to the stairwell. With less effort she made it down, letting gravity take her most of the way, as she grasped the bannister several times with both arms when she nearly fell and let out a giggle to anyone who sneered at her with disgust.

One man laughed at her. One woman waved a hand in front of her face and mocked the smell of booze. Another did offer help but Kara shooed her away.

"Got my bestie here somewhere," Kara assured. "Bestie where are you?" she called down the stairwell. The thought nagged at her a little. Cady. Where was she? Kara shook it off, air first.

Kara reached the main entrance and staggered past the bouncers. She hit the red rope just as the fresh air hit her and rewarded the patiently queuing people with a large mouthful of vomit.

Jeers, cries of disgust, swears and angry protests followed rapidly along with the clicks and flashes of phone photography.

Kara stood upright with a groan and tried to wipe the vomit from her face with the back of her hand but she only managed to smear it across her chin. "Shit," she groaned. "I mean, better but..."

Only then did Kara realise she didn't have her purse with her, which meant she didn't have her phone. She turned and made to head back into the club but found her way barred by two strongly disapproving bouncers.

"Scuse me," she mumbled, "I need my purse."

"Lady you are wasted," one bouncer retorted bluntly, "there is no way you are getting back in there."

"More than wasted, did you take something, do we need the cops?" the other quipped as he looked at her with suspicion.

Kara turned white at the mention of 'cops'. She wasn't so far gone that she couldn't imagine the implications of the cops being called on her publicly. "No, nope, nope. I'm going." Kara turned and fled to the rope again.

One of the bouncers stepped forward and unclipped the rope, better she was the street's problem than the club's.

The crowd was quick to shrink away from the vomit stained woman as if she were a leper.

Kara took advantage of the gap and slipped through. She stumbled away from the sneers and jeers and the flashes of light that made her head hurt. Suddenly the music humming from the club seemed too loud and her head was aching with it.

Kara stumbled down the concrete path barefoot, barely aware of the dirt on the ground that her exposed soles were picking up. She wondered again about Cady and what she was going to do. She wondered if maybe she should just wait near the club for Cady to appear.

"Shit," she cursed.

Kara pressed back against a wall and sucked in another breath of air.

"Hey lady how much?"

Kara glanced up at the voice and saw two men in a car leaning out the window and sneering at her. She gave them the one finger salute and they laughed and whistled before the car sped off.

"Shit, shit," she muttered.

She wondered if there was a payphone around, were payphones still a thing? She glanced around and saw a newsagents store still open just a few feet ahead, maybe they would be nice and let her use the phone. Maybe or maybe they would mention cops again.

Kara decided it might be worth the risk. She started walking forward again. Conscious of a dark alleyway beside her, she moved closer to the edge of the road.

She heard the rumble of an engine as another car pulled up beside her.

"Get lost," she grumbled.

"Lady I was just seeing if you needed a hand," a man called out to her in a calm voice.

Kara glanced at him suspiciously. She blinked a few times as his image swayed before her. She thought he looked plain and harmless but he was blurred and looks could be deceiving.

"It's alright, I'll handle this," another voice said. This came from just behind Kara, male, authoritative and calm.

The driver blushed as he realised how his gesture might have been misinterpreted. "I was just offering help officer," he babbled.

The man, a police officer, nodded and waved off the man. "I know, you can go, I'll get her home."

The driver nodded with a look of relief and hurried off.

Kara was now facing the cop, he was a bouncing blur but she recognised the unmistakable taupe and brown uniform of a Miami-Dade police officer. She took a nervous step back from him.

"Please don't arrest me," she begged.

He gave her a wide smile. "I'm not gonna do that," he assured, "I can see you're in trouble and it's not safe out here. I just want to get you home safely."

Kara groaned and reached a hand to her throbbing forehead. "That might be worse," she grumbled.

The officer laughed at this. "I can do without sirens, nice and discreet," he offered. "Come on, my car isn't far and you have no shoes on."

Kara swallowed hard and figured she had to admit defeat. She couldn't help but feel relief as well given her circumstances. That was her mistake.

Kara headed off with the police officer never thinking that her early thought of how deceptive looks could easily apply to people in uniform as well.


	2. Chapter 2- When Life is Murder

"Horatio can you seriously not tie a tie? That thing is crooked."

The redhead grimaced at the accusation as he reached for the knot of his tie for the third time. He hated Rick Stetler having any advantage over him but after burying their rivalry he had learned to accept that there were things Rick would best him at, tie tying being one of them. The irony was that Rick had an anxious habit of jerking his tie out of place and despite his scorn for Horatio he was liable to have a shoddy looking tie before the evening was done.

"Am I allowed to plea nervousness?" Horatio quipped in a dry manner.

Horatio knew he should be calmer. He was in his own bedroom getting ready for dinner ,what was so stressful about that? Sure what he planned for after dinner was something to be anxious about but was there any point in worrying about that now? Yet he couldn't shake his nerves and as uneasiness was something he rarely succumbed to he didn't know how to deal with it.

Rick stood in front of the redhead and fixed a stern stare on him before mockery filled his dark gaze and he shook his head with a smile. "Anyone else and sure, I would believe it but not you."

Rick reached out with both hands to push down Horatio's before he grabbed the offending tie.

Not that long ago the men would have never shared such a close proximity and if they had there would have been a heated anger between them threatening violence. Now they had shared enough to consider the other a friend of a sort, and they were tied together in their careers and in a shared relationship with Cassandra Silverstone.

To Rick, Cassandra was and always would be his little sister. No matter how old she got his attitude to her would never change, he was always protective of her, fierce to her at times when their sibling rivalry flared up but much fiercer to any who offended her or did her harm.

To Horatio, Cassandra was his girlfriend but now he hoped for more. Although she had at times presented the classic damsel in danger that he was always drawn to and the damaged woman he wanted to fix, he realised she was also the woman who fixed him. She listened to his woes and offered him sweetness and solace when he needed it, a tender kiss on his cheek or the tip of his nose to assure him there was still joy in the world and, when he craved it, she offered him seduction and sexual satisfaction, meeting his physical needs as much as his emotional ones.

"She could say no," Horatio murmured grimly.

Rick began to re-tie the tie. "She could but I doubt she's smart enough," he retorted in a deadpan manner.

"Funny Rick, truly," Horatio scorned him as he glanced up with a disapproving cerulean gaze.

Rick was one of the few people Horatio was forced to look up to, he hated it even now because he knew of the smug satisfaction Rick got out of being the taller of the pair.

The pair might have buried their animosity and hatred towards one another but the rivalry had not gone, it had reformed into something more familial and friendly but it remained.

Rick's girlfriend Natalia often teased them about being like bickering brothers when they did argue. It was also she, along with their friend and colleague Ryan, who had fanned the flames of jests about Rick and Horatio becoming brothers-in-law one day, a joke made before Horatio had ever considered marriage.

Natalia was the one keeping Cassandra occupied at the moment. She had invited Cassandra round to the home she shared with Rick, Rick and Cassandra's niece Marissa, and Rick's foster daughter Annabelle Ferris so they could all get ready for the evening together. It was an easy arrangement as Rick and Natalia's home wasn't exactly far for Cassandra to bring her change of clothes and make up to as she lived with Horatio just one street over. Natalia had also promised to get Cassandra and the girls to the restaurant they had reservations in without suspicion.

Their living arrangements was all very new to them and they had only spent a month adjusting to them. Rick, Cassandra and Marissa had been a unit for so long but when Rick had announced his intentions to foster Annabelle they had all known the inevitable change had arrived for them all.

Rick and Cassandra's apartment wasn't big enough for another child so Horatio had offered his home to Cassandra. Cassandra had been reluctant to move to Horatio's beach house however as it took her too far, in her mind, from Marissa and Rick. She was the main at home presence for Marissa as it was given she worked part-time and she pondered how Rick, in his new role as lieutenant of homicide, could consider minding two young girls without anyone else in the home to help.

Rick had admitted he didn't know how and grumbled that he would pay expensive child minders if he had to. It was simple, he couldn't see Annabelle being forced into the system. She was the daughter of a detective blackmailed into murder, Rick and Horatio had proved his sufferings and cleared his name as best they could. The same corrupt detectives guilty of blackmailing her father had made her witness to a murder of a close guardian, then kidnapped her and forced her into captivity with trafficked women where she endured beatings and witnessed rapes and torture. When her father had gotten killed, Rick and Horatio had picked up the trail of the kidnapped Annabelle and Rick had been the one to find and rescue her. This made him the only person she trusted or would talk to.

Annabelle had no known family and only Rick to fight her corner. Being stubborn however he hadn't asked anyone else for help, feeling they shouldn't be forced to take on the burden of a child with him. It was an attitude Cassandra and Natalia had both scorned him for before remedying it.

Eventually, after everyone had stopped trying to spare one another's feelings leading to unnecessary arguments, misunderstandings, confusion and delays, they had realised what was wanted and needed. Natalia and Rick wanted to be together as did Cassandra and Horatio but neither Rick nor Cassandra wanted to give up Marissa and she didn't want things to change at all. Rick also needed support minding Marissa and Annabelle.

The solution was Horatio's, as a house was just a building in the end, he was ready to sell his own and find one together with Cassandra in a neighbourhood close to wherever Rick and Natalia made theirs. Cassandra and Horatio would also have a spare bedroom for Marissa to stay in and through trial and error they would come to a balance that suited everyone.

Horatio had thought he would give this new and challenging arrangement a lot more time before he considered proposal and further change. Just a week ago however a thought had entered his head- what was he waiting for? Realising from many personal experiences how brief life could be he decided that he couldn't answer that question and he had bought the ring and awkwardly gone to Rick to explain his intentions.

Rick stepped back to admire his handiwork. Horatio's tie was a plain, metallic sky blue, it went well with the light grey suit Horatio donned and brought out the intense blue of his eyes. It was a merciful contrast to Rick's flamboyant tie, a monstrosity of satin paisley in clashing purples, blues and greens. It was one of the many in Rick's collection that was a misguided gift from his sister. Rick's ties were a running joke at work, very few actually knew that they were presents of love from his sister who he didn't have the heart to tell the truth of the ties to.

"Make sure Cassie doesn't have a say in your outfit for the wedding," Rick commented sternly, "if only to spare your wedding party."

Rick knew that Horatio could no more criticise Cassandra's gifts than him. It was why Horatio was currently wearing a set of crystal studded silver dolphin cufflinks on his blazer cuffs. They were comical and bordered on tacky and were so very ill-suited to Horatio but they were also expensive and a thoughtful gift not a mocking one. Horatio knew why Cassandra had picked them when others wondered if she knew her spouse at all.

Horatio had told Cassandra he had picked his beach house because he could sometimes see dolphins in the ocean from his porch, and it was a view that reminded him that no matter how grim or depressing his day life still went on and the world still had beauty in the madness. Cassandra had brought him the cufflinks so he could keep the reminder if not the view.

"She might not say yes," Horatio responded stubbornly, "and if she does I'll consider cravats."

"Oh much better," Rick sneered, "and I'm sure you'll have no problem putting one of those on."

"Well that will be your responsibility," Horatio grumbled.

Rick's dark eyebrows raised slightly at this. "Why would it be?" he queried curiously.

Horatio sighed and he ran a hand through his golden-auburn hair. He was feeling uneasy and he didn't know how to deal with it. He didn't want to have this conversation, not until he had gotten a yes, he knew it was superstitious but his nerves were making him a little inclined towards silly thoughts of bad luck and fate.

Knowing Rick wasn't going to let it go, Horatio answered. "If Cassandra says yes then maybe you will be the one to give her away but, if it's possible and if you would like, you should be my best man."

Horatio calmly waited for the scorn, scoff and rejection. He didn't even believe he'd suggested it. All the years he had considered Rick Stetler an arrogant, argumentative asshole, hell when he had dated Horatio's sister-in-law Yelina, Horatio had hated him and yet, here they were. When Rick had gotten shot just a few months ago and they had worried he might die, Horatio had finally realised he would actually miss Rick in his life. Rick was still his rival yes but they had somehow become friends.

Rick was stunned into silence as he mulled it over. "I would like that," he admitted quietly.

Horatio gave a flicker of a weak smile. "Well I'd have rather gotten Cassie's yes before yours but at least no matter what I will have gotten one yes this evening."

Rick laughed at this. "I don't know why in the hell you're so anxious. She's devoted to you, she shouts at me if I call you ginger, to get defensive over something so petty is idiotic but I suppose it's love as well."

"I'm sure you've called me worse," Horatio murmured dryly as he glanced at the clock on the wall.

It was coming up to half seven, their taxi should be arriving any minute.

"I'm sure I have," Rick retorted agreeably.

"We need to go."

Rick nodded. "We do."

Horatio led the way out of the bedroom he and Cassandra shared, stepping over a discarded towel and an abandoned pair of shoes.

"Good to see she's as tidy as ever," Rick scorned as he followed the redhead.

Rick flicked off the light and closed the door behind him.

Horatio led the way to the front door. It was a warm enough night, he figured there was no harm in waiting outside for a few minutes.

* * *

It was just after eight o'clock when Horatio and Rick arrived at The Crescent, an upmarket restaurant that dwelled on the beach and offered live music and a bar, and had a secure children's play area beside it.

Cassandra, Natalia, Marissa and Annabelle were already seated and Cassandra was teaching the girls how to fold their napkins into birds.

"Always the responsible adult," Rick murmured a greeting to his sister as he stepped up to his seat.

Cassandra turned her head up to give her brother a winning smile. As expected her pale blonde hair was down, left loose to frame her face and partially obscure her cheekbones. It was rare that the woman wore her hair up, she used it as a defensive mechanism in a failed attempt to conceal the vicious scars that sliced down her face from her eyebrows through her eyes to the tops of her cheekbones. It was more successful in hiding the scar on the back of her neck that came from a cigar burn.

"You're meant to say, evening ladies, you all look beautiful tonight," Cassandra scolded him cheerfully.

Rick frowned down at his sister. "Alright, you look less scruffy than usual, how's that?"

"That's rude Uncle Rick," Marissa chided.

Annabelle, pale and silent, gave a very faint hint of a smile that vanished as quickly as it had manifested. She waited until Rick's dark brown gaze fell on her and offered him up the crumpled muddle of a napkin meant to resemble a bird.

"I made this for you," she said quietly.

Cassandra and Natalia both gave small smiles of pride at the girl's gesture. They sat on either side of the girls, guardians to anxious children who had witnessed evils no child should ever be privy to. Knowing they could never undo the damage, all the adults in Marissa's and Annabelle's lives wanted to do was ensure their lives never took such a grim turn again but that they instead had the childhood they deserved.

Rick reached out for the napkin and took it gently with one hand as if it were made of glass.

"Thank you," he said sincerely.

Rick and Horatio took their seats opposite the women with two seats left between them.

Rick gave Natalia a warm smile of greeting. "You do look beautiful," he said sincerely, "but you always do."

Natalia Boa Vista, resident DNA expert at the CSI lab, gave her boyfriend a grin in response, flashing her two front teeth as she did. "You're looking impressive too Rick," she retorted happily.

"You look spiffy," Cassandra remarked brightly to Horatio.

Natalia laughed at this remark before she could help it. She turned to glance down the table at the blonde. "Is that word still in use?" she quipped.

Cassandra smiled back at Natalia. "It is for me," she retorted.

Horatio bowed his head as he gave a small smile. He could feel the edges of his ears burning slightly as he felt a little bashful with Cassandra's remark. It was odd how he was normally so calm and confident but this woman always had a way of knocking him off balance, surprising him with unexpected but very welcome passionate gestures or amusing him and making him feel the forgotten nerves of a teenaged boy getting teased by a girl he had a crush on.

"Well you always look lovely," Horatio replied quietly.

"At least you're not wearing enough bangles to suggest you're doing fortune telling for a change," Rick scorned as he glanced over at his sister.

Cassandra was a beach girl by nature, she dressed in summer clothes flattering to her figure and accessorised with a variety of trinkets that meant people often heard her jingled approach before they saw her. Even when she toned it down the aura of the beach didn't leave her, her skin was always warmed with a sunny glow and cleansed with a coconut smell, her hair had an odour of sea salt in its waves and sometimes she had tiny grains of sand caught under her nails. Tonight she had donned a dress because Natalia had advised the occasion called for it. Cassandra's dress was ruffle sleeved, figure hugging, cut in a demure V at the bust and pleated at the ends which were dangerously high on the thigh. It was also vibrant in its pattern of a colourful red base with yellow flowers, perfectly beautiful and bohemian.

"And yet you still scream pitiless law enforcer," Cassandra mocked her brother as she grinned at him. "Well at least one of us made an effort."

Horatio snapped up his menu. "Maybe we should order," he suggested.

"Good idea, the kids are starving," Natalia enthused.

They ordered quickly before settling into an amicable atmosphere. The air was warm and full of music, the restaurant was busy with a mixture of happy families and early party goers who had stopped in for food and drinks. With such a happy ambience it was easy to forget how dark the world could be. Even Annabelle seemed a little more joyous when Rick praised her colouring in skills and Horatio marvelled over hers and Marissa's drawings as the pair occupied their waiting time with crayons and paper provided by a helpful waiter.

After a three course meal that Horatio couldn't enjoy despite how pleasant it was, he persuaded Cassandra outside onto the soft white sand, turned grey in the night save for where the glow of the restaurant's lights turned it honey gold.

Horatio led the blonde away from the crowded areas but not too far, he didn't want to attempt anything in total darkness. Alright the sky was clear and a half moon was exposed but moonlight was only romantic in movies when it was shown so unrealistically close to couples that surely a tsunami was imminent. In reality, this close to the city, the light of the moon was driven back by light pollution and it wasn't enough to turn night to day as the movies implied.

Cassandra, puzzled and amused by her partner's uncharacteristic unease this evening, regarded him with a curious gaze as he released her hand.

The light from false torches on metal stems, made to flicker convincingly breeze or no breeze, sparkled on Cassandra's glasses obscuring her expression from Horatio.

The redhead realised with dismay that he wasn't going to be able to judge her emotions until it was too late for him to disguise his intentions should her reaction be less than satisfactory.

Seeing Horatio frown slightly prompted Cassandra to reach for the strands of hair tucked behind her ears at dinner to avoid catching in her food and tug them free to conceal part of her face. It was a vain effort as short of blinding herself with waves of blonde she could not properly conceal her scars.

Horatio realised that he was making Cassandra uneasy and he felt a rush of guilt. "Cassie I have a question for you," he admitted.

His right hand reached into his pocket just as his work mobile started ringing.

"Shit."

The curse surprised Cassandra as Horatio was normally too calm and in control of his emotions to swear aloud. She watched as he fumbled for his phone and produced a small, black box in his right hand instead before shoving it back into his pocket hastily with an angry shake of his head.

Horatio tugged out his phone and gave Cassandra an apologetic look as he answered. "Lieutenant Caine here."

"Horatio it's Frank. I'm sorry to disturb you but we've got a death on our hands and it ain't pretty," the Texan tones of Sergeant Frank Tripp called out. The sergeant sounded worried, which stopped Horatio from scolding him for ringing him when he was off duty. "I mean it's real bad," he added quietly, "like I ain't see before bad, weird too. Victim's name is why I called you and why Rick is getting a call too, Kara Watkins, that's Senator Watkins' daughter."

Horatio sighed. "Right Frank, send me the location, I'll see you soon."

Horatio ended the call.

"Work?" Cassandra queried lightly with a small, forgiving smile.

Horatio nodded. "Yes." He rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. It was his get out clause but the tension was killing him and who knew how long work was going to take him.

The redhead reached for the box again and dropped to one knee.

"Horatio did you get a call?" Rick's voice called across the sands.

Horatio swallowed down a curse. "Of course he couldn't wait," he muttered.

He could hear Rick approaching and turned a serious stare up to Cassandra. "This isn't how I meant to do this," he admitted.

Rick paused as he arrived at the scene, just in time to hear Horatio's words. He halted and fell silent, feeling guilty for intruding and yet feeling a little happy that he could bear witness.

"Your brother there insisted I did it right," Horatio complained, "on one knee with a ring." He sighed. "And yet somehow even as I'm doing this I'm not doing it right."

Cassandra beamed down at him. "Oh no Horatio, this is perfect," she said happily. "Rick interrupting and you nervous, trying to be traditional because you hope it's what I want, both of you needing to run off to work, well I wouldn't have it any other way," she concluded cheerfully.

Seeing Horatio falter as his cerulean stare blazed with discomfort, Cassandra leaned forward to give him a light kiss on the brow before putting her lips against his right ear. "I'm going to say yes," she said softly, "so keep going, it will all be fine."

Cassandra straightened as Horatio felt his ears suddenly burn with embarrassment.

Horatio had forgotten the speech he had practised. "Cassie," Horatio heard the grunt of disapproval from Rick and frowned.

Rick had been very particular about how Horatio should propose, little caring for how Horatio actually wanted to propose. Horatio would have gotten angry about it but he understood. Cassandra's last husband, the deceased Jasper Silverstone, had done a very botched job of his proposal and whilst Cassandra had been in love with the man, marrying him had been as much about escaping her abusive stepfather as being in love. As Rick put it, 'she would have said yes to any asshole offering her freedom'. Jasper had been a drug user who had to borrow a ring off Rick for the wedding ceremony. As far as Rick was concerned, his sister was going to get the proper proposal she deserved. Horatio had to agree, Cassandra definitely deserved something she could remember for all the right reasons.

"Cassandra Silverstone," he corrected, "I love you. You make me happy and I want you to marry me, will you?"

Cassandra smiled and nodded happily as she felt a sudden rush of joy. "Yes Horatio, I will," she retorted.

"Open the box idiot," Rick scolded him.

Horatio dipped his head in annoyance, sure Rick had a point but he was definitely spoiling the moment.

"Don't be a prick Rick," Cassandra chided her brother.

Horatio opened the box and offered up a gold band with a large sapphire in the centre of two pearls.

"It's beautiful Horatio," Cassandra marvelled. She laughed as she felt tears budding at her eyes without warning. "Damn you've made me cry, I'm more traditional than I thought."

Horatio plucked out the ring and pushed it onto her finger. "It's meant to represent the beach," he explained, "gold sand, pearls, and the sapphire sea."

Cassandra's smile widened as the tears trickled down her cheeks. "That's perfect," she murmured, "really, it's so thoughtful and creative. I love it."

Horatio stood at last and welcome the deep, warm kiss from Cassandra. He smiled as he kissed her back and filled with relief and a happiness he hadn't felt in a long time. He embraced her with both hands and pulled her close. For just a moment he could hold her and bask in a glow of elation and bliss, for just a moment, it was all he needed, just a few minutes that he could hold onto for the rest of his life.

The redhead kissed the blonde again. "I love you," he murmured.

"I love you too," she retorted merrily. "More now that you've given me something expensive and shiny," she joked as she twisted her finger about so the ring caught in the light and sparkled.

"Well congratulations and all," Rick remarked, "but we do have to go."

Cassandra frowned over at her brother. "You've become even more of an ass since you're promotion you know."

Cassandra broke from Horatio as Rick approached them and welcomed her brother's hug.

"You're a pain in the ass too Cassie," he teased, "but now you're going to be Horatio's pain and I am very glad to hand that burden over."

"You already did that when I moved in with him," Cassandra scolded as she laughed.

"Now I get it in writing, til death do you part."

Cassandra's stare turned mischievous as it darted from her brother to her new fiancé. "Yes, you and Horatio, brothers-in-law and family until death," she mocked them.

Rick and Horatio exchanged an awkward glance at this.

Cassandra laughed again as she broke from Rick. "Go solve crime then, I have to brag to Natalia about my shiny new ring." She gave Rick another teasing grin. "Maybe give her some ideas."

Rick blanched slightly at this and shook his head a little too quickly. "I don't think she needs those ideas."

"Third time's the charm Rick," Cassandra joked.

"Ha, ha," Rick responded dryly. "If it's not a first wedding for you two, you don't get to tease."

"Hmm do you think there's a coupon if it's number two?"  
"Yeah the divorce should be cheaper," Rick retorted bitingly.

Cassandra shook her head at him. "Now Rick no divorce jokes before the wedding," she scolded him. "Otherwise I'm telling Natalia you're thinking of weddings and babies!"

"Jesus Cassie stop," Rick begged as his eyes filled with alarm.

"I think we should go before you two go too far," Horatio suggested.


	3. Chapter 3- The Senator's Daughter

Rick and Horatio arrived to a busy scene. They had shared a taxi from the restaurant and their overdressed manner brought a welcome sense of amusement to an otherwise grim scene.

"Was there a dress code for tonight?" Detective Frost mused sardonically to Detective Carson.

Detective Carson gave a ghost of a smile and shrugged. "I thought I was the one making all the effort," he retorted.

Detective Tobias Frost and Detective Jack Carson were both casualties of the corruption in the Narcotics Department under the currently incarcerated Lieutenant Stephen Hines. Tobias had been set up by two of Hines' lackeys, Officer Ted Zebrowski and Detective Marcus Grayson, and framed by a prostitute who had planted weed on him. It was Rick who had helped to prove his innocence. Jack had almost been killed by Zebrowski and Grayson, spared by his paranoia he had gone into hiding until Rick had ended up killing Zebrowski and Grayson when forced into a showdown with the renegade cops. Both Tobias and Jack had been left jaded after their experiences and they hadn't been placated when Narcotics had gotten a new lieutenant after Hines' arrest and both had put in transfer requests to work in Homicide under Rick.

Detective Frost had found it an easy move as he had worked for two years in Homicide before Narcotics, whilst Carson was still under supervision, having just come back from trauma induced leave. Having his partner Jason Ferris being blackmailed and murdered while undercover and almost being murdered by two cops himself leaving him temporarily homeless with no one to trust had left Detective Carson mentally scarred and more than a little paranoid. It had taken a lot of therapy and trust building exorcises before he had been ready to work again. It was also another reason for his transfer, he couldn't work undercover again.

"You two certainly look flashy," Sergeant Frank Tripp mocked them as he glanced over at them, "were you on a date?"

Frank was dressed in a simple suit of grey with a white shirt and green tie, his shield just visible at his belt in the shadows of his jacket. His status was notable from his sturdy build, stern stance and the seriousness of his dark gaze. At work he was blunt but fair often finding himself the main go between for the CSIs and the police.

Rick frowned whilst Horatio just smiled.

"Dinner Frank," Horatio retorted calmly. Although the redhead wore a relatively blank expression he was still basking in the happiness of the evening despite the morbid turn. Cassandra had said yes.

"Well I hope you enjoyed it," Frank grumbled.

The sergeant turned his attention to the grisly scene, which was currently being attended by CSIs Ryan Wolfe and Eric Delko. Eric had paused momentarily to give his boss, Horatio, a nod of greeting and Rick a cold stare.

They were all gathered on a relatively unremarkable patch of dry grass and dirt in a rundown part of the city. Once it was probably an attractive stretch of green meant to add ambience to the neighbourhood but now it was as dead as the body abandoned on it.

The evening air was pleasantly warm, tolerable now they had escaped the sweltering heights of summer. It was hard to take any joy in it however with the young corpse before them.

Rick stepped forward and stared down at the body with a cool calm. It was unsettling seeing as many bodies as he did now but, as Horatio had assured him he would, he was becoming used to it. He was still undecided as to whether that was a good thing or not.

"How did you identify her?" he quipped.

Rick knew they couldn't have had the chance to run her prints yet and he was struggling to see how they had identified her by her face given her eyes had been obliterated. He stiffened at that sight remembering his half-sister Gilly dead in the morgue with her eyes smashed inwards. Gillian 'Gilly' Garrett was not yet two years dead and every so often the image of her abused corpse would pop into Rick's mind unexpectedly causing him to tense up and half-throttle himself with his tie. It was one of many, many images of horror that tormented the lieutenant although thanks to therapy he was learning how to deal with them but he couldn't banish them.

"She made social media fame yesterday," Jack retorted. "She left a club drunk the night before and threw up onto people queuing to get in. Her image has been circulating online since."

"And you recognised her just from that?" Rick queried bluntly as he glanced over at Jack.

"She fits the weight, height and build," Jack replied, "and the hair and skin tone match."

"What detective training wheels should point out and what you should have spotted is the tattoo," Eric spoke up rudely. He gestured to the woman's right breast bone where a single feather had been marked in black ink, styled as if it had just landed. "She had one just like it."

Rick frowned back at Eric. The pair shared a colourful history, which included Rick investigating Eric with regards to purchasing drugs. Rick had no desire to be friends with the man and was accepting that they weren't going to be tolerable with one another either. What was worse was Eric was brother to Horatio's late wife Marisol and Eric couldn't seem to come to terms with the fact that Horatio had moved on to Rick's sister of all people. Rick and Horatio were both dreading how Eric would take the news of his boss' engagement.

"Screw you Delko," Jack grumbled back.

"Hey I'm not paid to hold your hand," Eric retorted.

"No, tonight that's me," Frank interrupted bluntly before Rick or Horatio could say anything. He stepped over to the men and eyed them warily, daring them to continue the bickering.

Rick resumed studying the corpse. She was naked save for two things, a pair of white wings which were spattered in blood and a halo made of silver tinsel. Her neck had bruising about it suggesting strangulation. Curiously, there were no visible wounds despite the bloodstains on the wings. She lay amongst discarded rubbish, her body smeared in an oily substance with a brown tinge to it.

"What a strange position she's in," Rick murmured.

"Strange?" Frank echoed.

Rick nodded solemnly as he gestured down to her. "Look at her positioning, knees bent, palms clasped together, she's lying down but it's like she's mimicking kneeling in prayer."

Horatio was silent, observing Rick with a small degree of pride. Rick had always been a determined, detailed worker but now there was something else, an energy in him he hadn't shown in IAB, it was obvious Rick actually liked his current job and was determined to do his best in it as much out of love as pride.

"We'll know more after tests," Ryan said, "what she has been stained with and if any trace was left. Unfortunately, this spot, is frequented by a lot of people so it's heavily contaminated."

"Dressed up like an angel but surrounded in trash, why?" Rick pondered. "Is she meant to resemble a fallen angel?" He glanced at Jack. "You say there were videos of her being thrown out of a club, has anyone gotten in touch with her family to find out if she was seen after that? We need a time frame here."

"We haven't gotten in touch with them yet," Jack admitted.

"That's the next port of call," Frank said bluntly, "but she hasn't been reported missing, that I know."

"This can't just be a crime of opportunity," Rick murmured with a frown.

"Yeah, people taking advantage of drunk women don't usually then leave them with accessories," Tobias mused. "Strangulation or stabbing fits but usually it's a better body dump than this."

"I don't know," Ryan commented, "a lot of poor women that are taken advantage of usually are dumped with the trash, it's that or in the water."

Ryan had resumed taking photographs of the scene.

The sound of sirens let them know that the medical examiner had arrived.

"We need to tell her parents and find out when they last saw her," Horatio said solemnly. "No matter what she did at a night club she didn't deserve this."

"Why put in her eyes like that?" Jack pondered with a grimace.

Rick's right hand reached for the knot at his tie and he tugged it a couple of times.

Horatio observed the homicide lieutenant's unease but did not comment on it.

Eric, who had scraped off a sample of the greasy substance and was now sealing it, leaned back from the body as M.E Tara Price joined them.

Tara was young, pretty and ever active. She was more methodical than her predecessor Alexx Woods, opting to be clinically professional with her cases rather than show a personal touch but she had a friendly side to her as well. Eric had very briefly contemplated asking her on a date but had decided against it, recalling the risks that had come with dating Natalia.

The thought of Natalia had Eric glancing to Rick with a heated hostility. Rick was dating her now and his sister had replaced Marisol and, if things continued as they were with Cassandra and Horatio, then Rick might well replace Eric too as Horatio's brother-in-law. What was extra maddening about it all was that Ryan couldn't understand why Eric still hated Rick so much, how could he not see how Rick and his sister were slowly but surely replacing Eric and Marisol in Horatio's life?

Eric couldn't warm to Cassandra, she was flighty, unbalanced at times and seemed shrouded in danger plus she had been an exotic dancer of all things and even had a record, how the hell anyone could think Eric would be happy with someone like her stepping into Marisol's shoes he could never fathom.

Then there was Natalia. Things with her and Eric had ended without either of them actually calling time on the relationship. There had been the pregnancy scare and even though Eric had handled it in his stride and vowed to stand by her no matter what, when it had turned out to be a false alarm Natalia had seemed to take it as a chance to escape before their relationship did get that serious.

Natalia had every right to move on but Eric had assumed it would be with Ryan who had also dated her. Eric had figured he would even be happy for them if it did work out that way. Eric was confused over his feelings for Natalia and Calleigh, and he figured if Natalia was with Ryan it might give him some clarity.

Natalia being with Rick just made Eric feel a little nauseous. The thought of Rick touching Natalia intimately made Eric's skin crawl. Then there was the idea that Rick might better than Eric, that his asshole personality somehow wasn't off-putting and the idea that Natalia might have serious feelings for Rick just annoyed Eric. It made him compare himself to Rick and wonder why he came up short and his relationship with Natalia had floundered whilst Rick still had her, hell he was living with her now, she and Eric had never even considered that stage.

"Eric?"

Eric snapped back to attention at Tara's questioning voice.

The medical examiner was looking at him with a wary, brown stare.

"Have you got everything you need from the body?" Tara repeated.

Eric nodded and shuffled back from the body some more. "Yeah, thanks Tara," he said sincerely.

Rick watched Eric carefully. He had seen the anger directed at him in the young man's eyes. He knew what Eric was thinking, having once been dominated by hatred himself it was easy for Rick to imagine the thoughts running through Eric's mind.

Rick frowned. Understanding did not have to equal empathy. He had put up with Eric's shit for long enough now and he knew when Horatio announced his engagement it was only going to worsen and Rick didn't have the patience for it.

"Has she any wounds on her?" Rick queried.

Tara glanced up at him warily. She didn't know the homicide lieutenant well having had limited interaction with him when he was in IAB. What she had heard about him from most people had initially been unfavourable but then he had risked his career to bring down the corrupt detectives and officers in narcotics and two lieutenants, one of whom was his own boss who had tried to get Rick declared insane to discredit him, and he had saved Annabelle Ferris while doing it and suddenly most people were a fan of Rick Stetler. His move to homicide made him reborn in some officers' eyes and they were willing to act like he hadn't been an asshole in IAB. For the moment Tara was reserving judgement of the man.

She inspected the body carefully and shook her head. "Not on the front, let's roll her."

With Eric's help, she turned the body on its side. She frowned at the greasy substance that smeared her pristine gloves. "No visible wounds on her back," she murmured.

"Then where did the blood come from?" Rick quipped.

Tara glanced up at him calmly. "That's one for you to figure out lieutenant. I'll inspect her more thoroughly at the morgue but I don't think any cuts are going to show up."

Rick nodded.

"We need to talk to the family," Horatio said. "We should do that now."

Rick glanced over at the redhead out of the corner of his eye and nodded. "Right. Detective Frost, Detective Carson, canvas this area, see what anyone might have noticed. It's a flat land, not much to conceal someone doing a body dump," Rick ordered his detectives as he gestured out to their surroundings.

Tobias gave a flicker of a grin as he shared a glance with Jack. They had impressed upon Rick their desire for him to use their forenames but Rick had a penchant for using titles. Rick viewed it as a sign of respect despite some thinking he was simply arrogant.

"Ryan, Eric, back to the lab to run tests on that grease and the blood and see if there is any possibility of prints," Horatio ordered.

Ryan nodded as he stood up. He stepped up to Rick and said cheerfully, "don't forget we have plans for Skybird's tomorrow night."

Rick gave a small grin as he nodded. "Sure, an early night though, it's a school night."

Ryan laughed at this. "So true for you." He glanced over at Tobias. "What about you Tobias, you get a babysitter sorted?"

Tobias nodded. "Yes, until ten, then I have to leave."

Eric frowned at the conversation but said nothing. He just walked away, heading for his work car. He bristled hearing Frank and Jack's laughter.

At least twice a month the men would do something sociable together, usually it was a drink in the bar maybe with some casual pool playing or air hockey, something Tobias was very competitive at, or it might be a non-profit card game at Frank's house or a trip to the batting range as one memorable night had been because Jack had always wanted to try baseball and apparently never had the opportunity at school.

It had all come about from Ryan's suggesting and casual pestering, all as a means of helping Rick deal with the mental health issues he suffered in the debacle with the corrupt members of the force and from a troubling childhood. Rick had always struggled with his social skills but after being kidnapped, tortured and almost murdered, and then betrayed and bullied by his boss, shot and almost killed by a detective he had then been forced to kill, and pushed to a mental breakdown by his boss, Rick had almost lost it all.

Rick had battled back and with therapy wrestled the worst of his demons and earned his promotion. However, he had a lasting trauma from it all that he couldn't entirely shake and he wasn't alone in that. Jack Carson had his fair share of woes and worries and had been close to the edge too. Horatio had taken a dark route towards rage and violence after losing Marisol and his brother both violently and then having Cassandra kidnapped and tortured, then forced to kill her assailant and then later being targeted and wounded by a man with a grudge against Horatio. It had all taken its toll on the redhead who had become bitter at the world and more inclined to serve vengeance over justice. He had put himself into therapy before he lost his job for it and as a show of support for Rick who worried about the damage to his career his mental health issues might bring.

Ryan thus was determined that they didn't slip back into a state of depression, fear or insecurity that no one else was aware of. He wanted them to know they had support or friends and he wanted them to have that moment of escapism and happiness. It was a chance to unleash the stress with people who could relate to it. He needed it too having his own demons to battle with gambling problems, debts and the trauma of a serious injury to his eye as well as being kidnapped and beaten by a Russian gangster.

Eric was of course invited to these nights. The invitation was quite open and who attended varied but Eric had never gone. Stubborn, he couldn't swallow his dislike for Rick to consider socialising with him. He wasn't blind with hate for the man, he had even defended him before, and he had a grudging respect for Rick's role in finding the killer of Eric's friend Thomas Menedez but Eric could never like him or be his friend.

Horatio watched Eric depart with a look of guilt. He and Eric had been close once but the death of Tim, then Marisol, and Horatio's relationships with Rick and Cassandra had seen a distance come between him and Eric. True, he had never considered the man a brother-in-law in anything but name and Eric had never regarded Horatio as family in that respect but they had still been close, it had just been a damaged relationship. Horatio wanted to mend it but not at the cost of Cassandra or Rick.

The redhead had put too much effort into evolving his rivalry with Rick into something less poisonous. After Rick had almost died, Horatio had vowed they would never go back to a stage where they had such heated hatred between them. He was determined that their relationship never break beyond mending.

"Frank, I know you're on duty with the detectives," Horatio began.

"But you two came here in a taxi," Frank observed bluntly, "and you're a little overdressed to be taken seriously as cops so you need me to provide transport and look the part."

Horatio gave a faint smile. "Something like that."

Rick frowned, ill-appreciating the implication that he couldn't carry out his role in a suit. He thought of the morbid news they would soon be delivering and his frown deepened. Delivering news of death never got any easier.

Frank glanced at Tobias and Jack with mild uncertainty.

Tobias flashed a bright smile as he swung an arm over the taller Jack's shoulders. "Don't worry, I'll look after our newbie," he teased.

Jack bristled slightly and glanced over to Rick. "Boss this has to be a form of abuse."

Rick, standing with his hands on his hips in an effort to avoid fidgeting with his tie, gave a small grin and shook his head. "Patronisation maybe," he retorted, "but not quite abuse. Search the area, call if you need or find anything."

Tobias and Jack nodded.

"Let's go then," Frank said.

* * *

The house of Senator Tom Watkins was as expected- large, secluded and heavily guarded. It was Horatio who got them through the proverbial red tape with a combination of smooth talking and mild threats for the guards on duty. The flashing of two lieutenant's badges and a sergeant's badge didn't matter much to anyone there and the three found themselves walking up the path with an escort.

James Hoyes, on duty at the front door, looked over with surprise at the approaching group. His questioning blue stare darted to the guards flanking the trio. "Little late for party guests isn't it?" he quipped as he eyed up Horatio and Rick's attire.

Rick bristled, tired of the stares and jibes now, and yanked out his gold shield for the umpteenth time. "I'm Lieutenant Stetler, we need to speak with Senator Watkins," he explained bluntly.

Frank resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Rick announcing himself. The man still hadn't gotten over his title despite having gained it a few months ago. Frank knew Rick had more than earned the promotion but he was still eager for the man to get the hell over it.

"And all three of you need to be here for that conversation?" James queried dryly. His stance was unthreatening and his stare calm as he looked at Rick curiously.

"We do," Horatio retorted with the same calm.

James shrugged. "Alright."

The young bodyguard turned from them and hit the buzzer for the door. Of course he knew the code but he was unwilling to key it in, in front of three observing cops.

The door was opened promptly leading Horatio to think that the people within had been told of their arrival and were just stalling so the senator could prepare to greet them.

A smartly dressed female in a black suit greeted them with a dismissive blue stare.

"Jesus Christ," Rick breathed out before he could help it.

The woman smiled as she stared up at him deviously. "Sergeant Stetler what an unpleasant surprise," she greeted.

"Lieutenant," he corrected automatically. "And what's your title now?" he added with a slight sneer.

"Still Miss Greene," the woman retorted.

She was Bianca Greene, former detective in Narcotics and one of the deceased Jason Ferris' partners. Her apathy towards his death and the scandal surrounding it and, much worse, her indifference to the fate of his daughter Annabelle, had led her to become a pariah at work, especially after the truth of Jason Ferris' plight was revealed. Bianca had quietly quit the department but until now Rick and Horatio hadn't known or cared where she had gone.

"Miss Greene we are here to speak with Senator Watkins," Horatio explained, "on official police business."

Bianca raised her eyebrows slightly at this and smiled. "You don't look like you're dressed for official police business," she mocked.

"We've wasted enough time talking to henchmen here," Frank grumbled, "and you should remember sometimes you can be called into work even when you're off duty."

Bianca's smile turned cold. "Sure," she retorted bluntly. "Good to know you all still have a sense of humour." She stepped back from the doorway at last. "Come in then."

Rick led the way in and Bianca's smile widened.

"You in charge then Lieutenant Stetler?" she quipped.

"Of homicide," Rick retorted bluntly, "and Horatio is heading the CSI side of things, as normal."

Horatio hid his smile at this. Once Rick would have relished being put on a pedestal above Horatio and he certainly wouldn't have made the distinction but their relationship had come along way and it was evident that Rick respected Horatio.

Bianca led them through the house and into a secluded sitting area. "Wait here," she instructed, "and try not to touch anything."

She stepped out of the room and shut the door behind her before anyone could respond.

"I feel like we've just entered one of those locked room contests," Frank grumbled. He glanced about their surroundings with scorn.

The room was intentionally small, one of those cosy designed living rooms for the rich with a bookshelf spoiled with expensive, leather backed books that were probably never read, the classic crystal decanter and glasses with dusty bottles of aged scotch and whiskey and the terribly uncomfortable looking leather backed chairs.

"So how was your dinner?" Frank queried as he glanced from Horatio to Rick.

"Good," Horatio retorted happily.

"Rick?"

"I'm not doing small talk Frank," Rick dismissed.

Rick was was studying the artwork on the walls with disgust. It was just like Garrett House, expensive things to never be enjoyed, a house that was less a home and more of a museum.

Frank frowned over at him. "Always good to have you in pleasant form Rick, I'm glad the promotion has made you a more sociable, cheery person," he scorned him.

Horatio dipped his head to hide his smile as Rick turned round to face Frank with a glower.

The door opened before Rick could snap a response.

It wasn't Bianca but the senator himself.

Senator Tom Watkins wore an emotionless expression as he stepped into the room and regarded the officers with a careful frost blue stare. He raised a hand to halt the people behind him before lowering it to close the door quietly behind him.

He spoke before the officers could bother with introductions. "Is my daughter dead?" he queried bluntly.

Horatio read the man's serious stare. He had dealt with politicians before and knew the man wasn't thinking how he felt over news of his daughter's demise but how he should be perceived to be feeling. It disgusted Horatio to think this Washington man was probably wondering what points he could score publicly in his expression of grief.

"Yes senator," Rick retorted quietly.

Senator Watkins' greying eyebrows rose slightly as he studied Rick's expression. "Bianca says you're the lieutenant of homicide," he murmured. His still emotionless gaze shifted to Horatio. "And you are the lieutenant in CSI, I've seen you on t.v., Lieutenant Caine."

Horatio nodded. "Yes Senator Watkins," he retorted calmly.

Frank lingered quietly in the background, unconcerned with the senator not knowing him. The man had enough to take in without wondering who Frank was.

"You two wouldn't be delivering this news if it was an accidental death, would you?" Senator Watkins' quipped calmly.

The man's calm was starting to grate on Rick and he pondered if it was a delay to the shock. "No senator," Rick retorted.

The senator nodded. "What happened then?"

"Her body was discovered earlier this evening senator," Horatio explained, "and we are currently awaiting confirmation of her cause of death."

"But you know it wasn't an accident," the senator commented bluntly.

Now Frank was starting to grow weary of the man's attitude or lack of one, he wasn't sure exactly which it was. He glanced around the room to the uncomfortable looking chairs and wondered if they might be better than standing.

"We do," Horatio confirmed. "Senator we are aware that she was out at a club last night but there was no lodged report of her going missing, is there somewhere you expected her to be?"

The senator's mouth rose slightly in a hint of a self-mocking smile. "Are you trying to ask if I cared that she was absent?" he quipped bitingly.

"I was in Washington D.C watching a mediocre news show bolster its ratings with poorly filmed shots of my daughter humiliating herself on the streets of Miami. I had to endure a lengthy call from my wife in the middle of it telling me that Kara had gone into hiding with her friends because she knew better than to come home after such a spectacle. Is it unfathomable that I assumed this was the most plausible outcome? That Kara had sought sanctuary with a friend until our righteous rage at her escapades cooled?" he quipped.

Frank and Rick both filled with annoyance at the way the man spoke. He had just been told his daughter had been murdered, was the articulation necessary? Where was the emotion? Rick remembered being accused of his lack of emotion in the wake of his half-sister, mother and step-father's murders. He hadn't expression much emotion for the cameras and clung to professionalism but he felt this was different. In the moment of the revelation Rick had raged and the poor cop who had delivered Rick the news of the murders had feared losing their head. The senator wasn't in front of the cameras yet, where the hell was his shock and grief?

Horatio nodded. He had expected difficulty, people in power were always the worst when crime touched them, they seemed to struggle between their personal side and their professional side and were always worried over perception.

"Senator we will need to talk to your family and staff and go through what happened last night," Horatio said. "Kara started her evening at home and any details they can provide could help us learn what happened to her."

The senator's stare finally showed a hint of emotion- ire.

"My team are going through where we found her and will be inspecting the club where this footage of her was taken," Rick said. "We will find who did this to your daughter but we need everyone's co-operation."

The senator fixed his look of ire onto Rick. "She was killed outside these walls and I cannot imagine her killer being someone from this household but I do take your point lieutenants, you think retracing her steps might conjure up some picture of how she ended up dead instead of home."

The senator's sagged slightly and lost his stiff stance. "Home," he repeated softly.

His icy blue gaze stare past Rick this time, focusing on a gap between Frank and Rick where a desk stood.

Horatio followed his gaze to a framed photograph that was turned away from them and wondered if it depicted Kara.

Rick pulled out his wallet from his trouser pocket and from it produced his card. He was proud of the contact card although it wasn't practise for him to hand them out to civilians as it was for the detectives beneath him to take those calls but this was a senator. He held it out to the man.

"My card senator," he explained, "you can call anytime. We will go and give you time to speak with your family and process this news. When we have an update we will let you know."

The senator plucked Rick's card from him and shoved it into his jacket pocket with a brisk nod. "And her body?" he queried.

"When the Medical Examiner releases it you will be informed," Horatio answered him calmly. "We need to conduct a thorough examination to determine cause of death and preserve evidence."

"Right."

The senator glanced down at his attire. He was wearing an expensive, designer, pale brown based suit with a pale green tie. "I came direct from Washington," he explained as he glanced up at the men again.

Horatio felt the man was trying to tell them he had come as soon as he could upon hearing of his daughter's exploits. Like Frank and Rick he wondered at the man's emotions and the motivation for them and right now he couldn't tell if the man had rushed here out of concern for his daughter or to minimise a scandal.

"Where were you two?" Senator Watkins' pried curiously.

"Out for dinner," Horatio retorted with an amicable smile. He figured he would give the man the benefit of the doubt and considered that he was seeking a distraction in them to delay facing the grim news they had brought.

The senator nodded. "A pity it had to be ruined by this."

"It wasn't," Horatio assured him.

Frank scowled at this before he could help it. Did the man really think a dinner was more important than his daughter's murder?

"We will leave you to your grief now senator," Horatio said gently.

"Right."

The senator realised he wasn't going to get to delay anymore with them and he turned to reach for the door. He opened it and led the back to the corridor and the waiting Bianca.

"Bianca, see them to the door please," he ordered stiffly.

The woman nodded before her curious stare shifted to the cops. "This way," she said bluntly.

Bianca didn't speak to them or glance back at them as she led them to the entry of the house. She didn't bother with a farewell as they headed from the house and to the guarded pathway.

"Jesus that was some reception," Frank grumbled.

Rick nodded agreeably but didn't say anything as they headed for Frank's car.

"So," Frank murmured, "am I taking you two home then?"

Horatio nodded. "We'll regroup in the morning and see what Tara can tell us."

"Alright," Frank retorted.


	4. Chapter 4- Terrors in the Night

Rick was quick to deactivate the alarm at his front door before leading the way into his house. It was late. He didn't even know how late, somewhere around eleven he figured but maybe it was more like twelve. He headed up the hallway, grateful that Natalia had left the hall light on for him or more properly them.

Horatio followed behind Rick, here to rouse and retrieve his girlfriend. No it was fiancée now. The thought of the terminology brought a small smile to the redhead's face as he followed after Rick.

They bypassed a set of stairs that led up to the bedrooms and headed through a door on the left into the living room. If Cassandra was on her own, Rick figured she'd be here. The kitchen and dining area were at the back of the house, exposed to a set of patio doors that led outside. They were secured of course but the patio doors that Rick and Cassandra had once been abducted through from Horatio's old beach house had been secure too. The living room had a single window that only opened at the top and even then it was restricted.

The living room was lit in a warm honey glow from a tall lamp standing in the back corner. On the three seater couch Cassandra was sprawled out, unconscious with a blanket half on the floor and half about her. On the two seater was Natalia, awake but tired eyed as she sipped calmly at a cup of coffee.

Natalia turned a small smile up to Rick and then Horatio.

"Hey Nat," Rick greeted quietly, "you didn't need to sit up for us."

Natalia nodded to Cassandra. "She started making noises in her sleep," she explained softly, "I thought it was better if I stayed nearby."

Rick looked over at his sister pityingly. Cassandra suffered from bouts of sleep walking and nightmares, bundled with temperamental cluster headaches, it was all part of the baggage of a traumatic life.

"She didn't...walk anywhere, did she?" Rick pried awkwardly.

Natalia shook her head. She turned her gaze to Horatio, hoping to convey some reassurance with it. "It was just some noises," she insisted, "nothing worse. I stayed as a precaution that's all."

Horatio nodded. He was long used to Cassandra's poor sleeping habits and wasn't surprised by the news.

Natalia stood up with her coffee cup in hand and gave Horatio a smile. "Congratulations H, you did really good on the ring, she's thrilled," she praised him quietly.

Horatio gave a small smile in response. "Thank you Natalia."

Natalia glanced over to Rick. "I'm going to go upstairs," she informed him, her voice still soft so she didn't disturb Cassandra. "I'll see you up there, okay?"

Rick nodded.

Natalia slipped out of the room quietly as Horatio stepped up to Cassandra.

The redhead crouched down beside her and stroked her blonde hair gently as he studied her face. He had learned to read the subtle nuances of Cassandra in sleep mode, the telltale signs of a budding nightmare or a peaceful dream. He saw that her brow was smooth of wrinkles, her knees were drawn but only for spacial reasons and her breaths were regular. Whatever had threatened to plague her mind earlier had passed.

"Cassie," Horatio addressed her gently as his hand slipped down to squeeze her shoulder, "wake up honey."

"I usually just pinch Natalia or shake the alarm clock at her," Rick murmured. He was standing with his arms raised to hips, an expression of impatience clear on his face.

"I intend to ask her one day what exactly the attraction to you is," Horatio retorted dryly. He gave Cassandra's shoulder another squeeze.

The blonde's dark eyes fluttered open and she gave a weary groan. "Horatio?" she queried sleepily.

"Yes Cassie."

"Hmm give me five minutes to wake up 'kay," she murmured, "then I'll reward you for my ring, I'll even use my tongue."

"Oh dear God!" Rick exclaimed loudly.

Horatio's ears turned crimson as he pulled back from Cassandra who had bolted to life at Rick's yelling.

"Rick?!" the blonde shrieked as she sat upright and looked about in surprise.

"Yes Cassie you're in my house," he retorted hotly. "You fell asleep on the couch and now I've something new to complain about at therapy."

Cassandra blushed slightly as she pushed back her hair and fumbled for her discarded bag on the floor. "I was still half asleep, sorry. What time is it?"

"Time for me to take you two home," Rick grumbled.

"We can walk," Horatio offered.

"No doubt and after that image I'd prefer it," Rick snapped at him, "but it's dark and late so I'm driving you otherwise Natalia will yell at me."

"Not for safety then?" Cassandra quipped sarcastically as she stood up.

"It's one block over and Horatio has a gun so no," Rick retorted with equal sarcasm to his voice.

"Two good reasons why we should walk Rick," Horatio said gently.

Rick shook his head. "No, Nat will call me a bad brother. Let's just go."

Rick led the way out of the house, pausing to set the alarm code and secure the door before heading for his car.

Horatio and Cassandra sat in the back seat in a cosy embrace and smiling at each other like teenagers whilst Rick scowled at them several times in his rearview mirror. Rick was glad the drive was brief.

Once Rick had left the pair off without trouble and dutifully waited until they were safely in the house, he returned to his own home.

Doors locked and alarms set for the final time of the evening, Rick headed upstairs. He followed his usual regime of checking on the girls first. Their rooms were beside each other, both with an ajar door to let the hall light pool in, and Annabelle's with a night light as well.

It wasn't uncommon for Rick to find at least one of them still awake and troubled in the night, sometimes even both. Marissa and Annabelle had both come from traumatic, violent backgrounds and seen the worst of humanity in a few short years of life. Expecting them to grow out of it or get over it was impossible, all Rick could hope for was that they let it fade a little and developed more happy memories than bad so they could summon them when their worst memories tried to take over.

Rick had never intended on being a family man, he was put off having children by his own experiences as a child in the Garrett House. After losing his potential first born to a miscarriage he had been convinced parenting wasn't on cards for him but now here he was, a shared guardian of his niece, and foster father to a girl he had rescued from criminals.

Rick stopped outside Annabelle's room. So she was the one awake then. He had no doubt if Natalia had found her in this manner she had gone in to soothe her back to sleep but Annabelle had a tendency to wake more than once if something was troubling her.

Rick stepped into the young girl's bedroom to investigate. "Annabelle it's late," he addressed her gently, "what's wrong?"

Annabelle was sitting upright in her bed quivering, her long, blonde hair an uneven mess about her. "I keep seeing bad men in my sleep," she admitted tearfully.

Rick gazed at her sympathetically as he approached her and took a seat on the edge of her bed. "I know bad dreams can be tough, Aunt Cassie is prone to them, but they are just dreams."

"They weren't," she protested.

Rick nodded. "I know that too but those men are gone and you are safe here with me and Natalia and Marissa. None of us will let anything bad happen to you. Now, I was just downstairs, the house is secure."

"Clare checked the doors and windows before they came," Annabelle whimpered.

Rick frowned. He knew who Clare was, the late Clare Hampton who had been minding Annabelle and died for it when two corrupt cops had come to kidnap Annabelle to use as leverage against her father Jason.

"I was very thorough," Rick said sternly before his gaze softened, "but if you want, I can sit here for a while with you, do you want that?"

Annabelle nodded.

"Alright, you lie back down then, who've you got with you tonight?"

Annabelle tugged up a cream coloured teddy bear with a wonky purple bowtie. "Cuddles."

Rick smiled at the bear's name. "Aright, you and Cuddles get cuddled up under the duvet then."

Annabelle obeyed and allowed Rick to fix the duvet cover up around her.

"Did you have a good time tonight?" Rick queried.

"Yes, I liked making birds."

Rick's smile widened. "You made a lovely bird for me."

Annabelle gave a pleased smile at this. "I want to make more."

"You will but now it's time to sleep. Close your eyes, I'll stay here."

Annabelle obeyed.

With Marissa, Rick was required to read fairytales to soothe her back to sleep but with Annabelle he simply had to stay in the room.

* * *

In the dark of the night a lost soul was finally laid to rest as a computer, incapable of tiring unlike its human users who had retired hours ago, finally spat out a positive result on a DNA match from a blood sample. The human lab worker who would receive these results in the morning, with much excitement and disbelief would delay them being passed on at first. With scepticism she would argue with a weary IT expert that the infallible computer was wrong.

Forced to wait for a more senior worker to check the results and confirm any bugs, the results would remain as they were until just after ten in the morning. At this point the lab worker would start the chain of human passage, which could often result in the aptly termed 'human error' but in this case would mercifully succeed, of getting these results back to the CSIs who had requested them.

At this point a seemingly ordinary case of murder, if such a terminology could ever applied to something so sinister, which was already hitting front pages because of the family ties of the victim, would catapult into a media frenzy as one murder suddenly became two despite the absence of a second body.

* * *

Natalia awoke just before five in the morning. It was still dark but she could feel the edges of morning light start to slowly creep across the black sky and dye it blue. She had awoken or already been awake for so many dawns that sensing sunrise without seeing it was instinctive.

For a moment she wondered what had awoken her. When once it might have been fear from a violent husband returned drunk, or the ache in an uneasy slumber caused by a bruise or breakage he had left her with, now it was something else.

In her new home Natalia Boa Vista had three mentally scarred residents to live with. Given she had her own share of personal woes and understood all too well what it was like to live in fear and pain, she had only empathy for her newly acquired family. When the girls had nightmares Rick, who seemed to have a sixth sense for these things, was already out of bed and halfway down the corridor to them before Natalia was even woken by the first whimper or wail. Mercifully, Marissa had almost outgrown her nightly terrors but Annabelle was still unsettled and frightened, always wary of another change or a new danger.

When Rick had a nightmare it was different.

Natalia realised quickly as she felt the disturbed thrashing beside her that it was Rick who had disturbed her peace this time. She sat up and stretched over for the lamp beside the bed.

Rick would never admit it or even hint at it but Natalia knew the presence of the light helped him chase away his subconscious torments. She knew also that this was because most of his nightmares took place in the dark, conjured or twisted memories of a night in the rain getting shot at, or being blindfolded and beaten in a house of horrors, or a moment of childhood spent imprisoned in a light starved closet, bound to a wall yelling himself hoarse.  
With the light on and adding a gentle glow to the room, Natalia readied herself to awaken her partner.

Rick was vocal this time. Sometimes there was an uneasy silence with him as he twitched and shook in his sleep, other times he screamed but sometimes he spoke and that was usually worse. His voice was broken, frightened and confused as he yelled at someone.

Natalia avoided a violent jerk of his right arm as she reached over to place her right hand gently onto his shoulder and squeezed it.

"Rick honey, you need to wake up," she addressed him kindly but firmly. "It's a nightmare Rick." She gave the shoulder another squeeze and leaned back swiftly as his dark eyes opened wide and alarmed.

Rick sat upright suddenly, his breaths coming out as frantic pants as a fresh coat of sweat soaked his bare torso.

Natalia sat beside him, calm and patient, knowing he needed a few seconds to reassure himself of his surroundings.

Rick's nightmares were rare but always terrible. His sister Cassandra had always been the one prone to nightly subconscious torments and she was much more animated than him, occasionally getting up to walk about in a manner Natalia would have described as zombie like if Cassandra didn't seem so animated and, at times, fast about it.

Natalia had only witnessed Cassandra's night time wanderings twice and had found it so disturbing she hadn't wanted to experience it again. She admired Rick for dealing with it for so long and always handling it in his usual practical manner and she had a new admiration for her boss Horatio for taking it on, seeing it as just another part of Cassandra. Horatio didn't even regard it as a necessary burden to be with the one he loved, the redhead was too attached to the blonde to be negative about it. When Natalia had asked him how he dealt with it, he had just given her a small smile and said quietly, 'I just do' like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Natalia was not as skilled or tolerant as Rick or Horatio in this manner. Agreeing to live with one child and Rick had been a difficult decision, welcoming another had been even harder and at times Natalia lingered in their bedroom, afraid to help the girls with their fear, afraid of being afraid of their nightmares and afraid of failing them.

Natalia had wondered about motherhood when she had had a pregnancy scare with Eric and when that had proved false she had moved on from the issue and never considered kids for herself. Now here she was thrust into parenthood without having born any children. It was terrifying and yet Rick steered her through it.

Rick's confidence and the rewarding feeling that came with Annabelle getting through her first night without awakening everyone with screams and seeing Marissa present a report card with top marks made it all worthwhile for Natalia. It was unexpected but entirely welcome to find that she embraced the girls coming to her for assistance with school projects and looked forward to a weekend when she could take them shopping for clothes or to the park with Rick.

Since Rick took on the harder duties of parenting two traumatised girls, and he always showed a patience with Natalia having to play catch up to it, she was thus determined that she not shy away when he was the one yelling in the night, no matter how disturbing it might be for her.

Rick flinched when Natalia's left hand slipped up into his dark hair but he did not shake it off. Another harsh breath of air escaped him and he remained tense as she started to stroke his greying crop of deep brown waves.

"Rick what happened?" she queried softly.

Rick glanced at Natalia out of the corner of his eye, guilty for awakening her and embarrassed for showing such vulnerability before her.

No matter how often Natalia told Rick that being vulnerable was to be human he still didn't like to show any weakness before her. Rick was always meant to be the protector, it was something ingrained in him since he had found himself from the age of ten trying to fend an abusive stepfather from his four-year-old sister. Rick considered himself a failure in that regard but Cassandra had an opposing viewpoint, telling Rick and Horatio that she believed the deceased Garrett's abuse of her would have been much, much worse if not for Rick always putting himself in the middle of it.

With his younger half-sibling Gillian, Rick had felt the same protective nature. For a while it had been easier with Gillian, she was Balthasar Garrett's daughter and he had only desired to spoil her. Rick's role as her protective older brother was more stereotyped, fending off amorous would be boyfriends and scolding her for underage drinking and warning her of the dangers of unsupervised parties. Still he felt he had failed. Gillian had gotten pregnant in a one night stand with a man who had eventually murdered her.

Then there was Marissa, Gillian's daughter. Rick couldn't save her from the horrors of hearing her mother and grandparents die and he couldn't spare her from witnessing the violent demise of a social worker. He was determined that she see no more violence and that she lived and grew up happy.

Annabelle was a similar case, daughter of a woman no one knew and a deceased narcotics detective Rick had never known on a personal level. Rick had rescued her from corrupt cops but he had almost been too late, he had saved from death but she had seen it before that. She was the witness to her guardian Clare Hampton's murder and to the vile sexual and violent acts carried out upon women she was held hostage with. She had seen things no child ever should.

Knowing all this, Rick couldn't forgo his role as the protector for even a minute and to him, admitting vulnerability was forgoing that role.

He trusted Natalia completely, she was no wallflower, she was tough, trained to shoot and skilled in self-defence and more than that. After living with an abusive husband, Natalia had determined never to be pushed around again. She could hold her own and often did time and time again and Rick had perfect faith in her ability to protect herself and anyone else in her life but still he couldn't surrender to her and let her be the sole protector for a moment.

"Rick come on," she urged, "you need to talk about it."

He nodded sombrely even as the memory of the nightmare began to fade. He felt the warm sheets beneath him, the damp traces of his own sweat already beginning to evaporate. It banished the terrible cold that had smothered him in the darkness of his dream.

"I was on that wall," he spat out hatefully.

Natalia continued to stroke his hair, running circles through his scalp as she listened. She knew what he meant.

After being kidnapped by his family's murderers, in a sick sense of irony, they had brought Rick and Cassandra back to Garrett House. There they had mounted Rick to the living room wall, binding him there with metal cuffs and beating him before leaving him with an elaborate booby trap that his rescuers were meant to unwittingly activate and murder Rick with. Mercifully, Horatio had sensed the trap and, with help, saved Rick from it. Rick had been brutalised that day, accepting whatever they offered because he was promised Cassandra, who was hogtied upstairs, would suffer more if he didn't.

The worst of it all was that Rick had never been allowed to forget it, not that he could anyway. His own co-workers, some of whom were part of a corrupt circle that was involved in the illegal sex trade of women from Mexico as well as several murders, had invoked the memories of it to Rick on a regular basis. For some of them it was part of a desire to drive him mad and have him spoil the case he was on that led to them but for others it was out of spite, they weren't corrupt, they simply loathed Rick for being an IAB agent who had put them through hell.

Although Rick had solved the case in the end and seen the culprits killed or sent to jail, there were still those who were guilty of no crime save bullying who sought to torment and mock him with memories. With his promotion to homicide that had mostly ended although sometimes he met with a few jibes, as his punishments and scrutiny as an IAB sergeant were not forgotten by many who sought a petty revenge upon him. It meant even with his therapy, Rick still struggled to overcome his grim memories.

Natalia understood that the memory of being mounted on a wall was one of the worst for Rick not because of the pain he had endured but because of how vulnerable and helpless it had made him. At least in other memories of suffering he had always been free to retaliate, he hadn't always won but he had never been imprisoned.

"I was on that God damn wall," he repeated vehemently. "I couldn't move, I couldn't see, it was dark and cold and I couldn't do anything except listen."

"Listen to what?" Natalia pried.

She had an urge to pull Rick into her and tug him down into an embrace but she knew he would resist.

"His voice, Garrett's, he just kept saying Ricky over and over, there was no end to it."

Natalia was puzzled as she wondered what had brought this dream on. "Were you thinking about him?" she pried. "Was it this case, did it prompt some memory?"

"No," Rick said bluntly. He sighed and shrugged off Natalia's hand at last only to bury both his own in his hair.

Natalia watched until he gave a loud groan and used an unnecessary force to dig his nails in. She leaned across and reached both her hands out to his, pressing her own upon them and taking a tender grip.

"Rick let go," she ordered, still gentle but firm.

Rick gave in and let Natalia guide his hands back down by his side. She released one but kept contact with the other.

When Rick got anxious or uneasy he fidgeted, it was a nervous habit he couldn't dispel. If he had a tie on, Natalia knew he would be tugging it down his chest until the knot was ruined and it was two slack strands.

"Keep talking honey," Natalia urged.

At work Rick had a designated therapist- a bland, unimposing man who was impersonal and clinical. He was a standard therapist for people within the police department, heavily experienced and skilled. Rick was one of five current patients he had at the moment. He was one of several designated therapists for the Miami-Dade force, coupled with psychiatrists and psychologists, a mixture of part-time and full-time who traded in differing theories and methods and swapped patients based on what treatment would suit them better. He was discreet and trustworthy and, mainly because it was recommended and he had little choice in the matter, Rick saw him once a month.

At home Rick had Natalia- his partner, lover, and girlfriend. She gave him love, advice, companionship, friendship, and she gave him someone who could listen and understand him on a personal level. His therapist for all his qualifications didn't really know Rick and never would but Natalia knew him because he couldn't hold back from her even when he wanted to.

Natalia had seen Rick at his best and at his worst. She had met him on poor terms and he had even had to interview her over the murder of her ex-husband. It was a memory so distant for them now that sometimes Rick considered it was a memory that belonged to a different person. Given that she was still with him and still in love with him despite all he had put her through, Rick knew he could always open up to her and trust her and he knew she understood him when he was vague about Garrett House because she had been there when he had been forced to reveal his history there and she had stood beside him and held his hand when the building had fallen and he had finally been freed of it.

"It was the engagement," Rick admitted bluntly. "No, before," he corrected moodily with a frown. His free hand was up again, half hanging in the air as if he couldn't decide what to do with it.

Natalia gave his other hand a squeeze.

Rick rubbed his free hand through his hair again. He was still sweating and his hair was already messy with the humidity from his own body, now his hands had mussed it into an eccentric style.

"Horatio asked me to be his best man even though I would probably be giving Cassie away."

Natalia felt Rick tense up again and watched as he bowed his head as anger and sorrow flickered across his face.

"It made you think about your father," Natalia guessed.

Rick had divulged to her that the reason Ricky was a trigger point for him was because his stepfather had called him it in a perverse variation of his father's tender saying of it. Garrett could not have known that Rick's father called him Ricky, it was an easy guess and when Rick had reacted to it Garrett had said it more, always with a sneer, sounding it out almost a whine to mock the boy's whines at him.

Rick nodded.

"You never talk much about him," Natalia murmured.

"No, well he never showed up, never asked about us that I know of," Rick grumbled.

Natalia knew Rick wasn't going to open up about his father now. It was too touchy a subject. "Alright Rick," she soothed. "Do you want to give Cassie away?"

"To Horatio? Not really," he retorted in a bitter show of humour. He swallowed and the seriousness returned. "If it's what she wants but I know it won't be, she's asked about him before but she always dropped it. I think she'll persist now."

Natalia couldn't say much to that. She suspected Rick was right about that and given that Cassandra was as stubborn as he was, she knew he was right to think the blonde wouldn't let the matter go unless she wanted to.

Rick turned to Natalia with a tired expression. "Can we let it go, for now?" he queried.

Natalia gave him a small smile which exposed her two front teeth slightly. Rick endearingly termed it her 'bunny grin'.

"Sure Rick." She leaned forward and gave him a light kiss on the mouth.

Rick responded with a deeper one.

It happened fast. Suddenly his arms were up and about her, pulling her close as his confidence returned and he turned his mind to other things.

Natalia let out a low, welcoming moan when one of his hands moved lower.

They were awake now anyway, she supposed they may as well make the most of it.

* * *

Eric Delko got the news first. Lab technician Valeria delivered it to him shortly after ten o'clock in the morning. When she handed it over with the blunt words of, "I already checked with IT, there's no mistake" and an expression of unease, Eric knew it was serious. Just like Valeria who had received it and questioned the computer's competency, Eric wondered if there was an error, something as mundane as a typo but he knew from Valeria's words that she would have checked it several times over before handing it to him, a mistake was impossible.

Eric headed through the lab to Ryan Wolfe's working station with reluctance. He was still mad at Ryan for the crime of having plans with Rick tonight. Rick and others sure but that wasn't the point. Eric had clashed with Ryan when Ryan at first joined the CSIs but then they had turned a corner and at one point even had a unified force against Rick but now Ryan was friends with the man and Eric felt betrayed by it. No matter how often Ryan tried to persuade Eric to join them, Eric wouldn't give in.

"Morning Eric," Ryan greeted politely as he glanced up from the oily substance he had been testing. It had come from Kara Watkins' body and was actually oil. Ryan was now trying to see if he could narrow that down to a brand or type.

"Morning Wolfe," Eric retorted. He kept his hostility from his tone, it was time for business and the business was more serious than the usual case of murder.

Ryan picked up on the tone and gave Eric his full attention, hazel eyes locking with Eric's brown ones. "What's up?" he quipped.

Eric held out the sheet of paper he clutched in his hand. "The tests on the blood samples came back," he said, his voice almost hollow now.

Ryan looked at Eric's extended hand and the sheet in confusion. He accepted it and studied it. It had the expected boxes of similarities and differences, enough ticked off to confirm a match. Ryan glanced down to where it should say Kara Watkins, although he'd heard no word of wounds yet or a cause of death.

Ryan paled slightly and looked back up to Eric in surprise.

"It's not a mistake," Eric said coolly. "Valera checked."

Ryan's gaze dropped back down to the sheet. "Benjamin Bracker," he voiced the name numbly, "but that's impossible. I mean, he's been dead for five years."

* * *

_So I know I've been working on another fic a lot lately but that's just how my mind works, the thoughts come and they must be unleashed but that doesn't mean I love working on this one any less. I've just got to wait for the inspiration because I don't want to rush it and produce something less than satisfactory for the sake of getting something up here because you guys deserve quality._

_Honestly, I didn't think a fanfic featured around Rick Stetler would get this kind of love and I certainly didn't think it would get enough love to be turned in a trilogy so thanks guys I really appreciate the fandom and the favs and the comments :-)_


	5. Chapter 5- Family

Benjamin Bracker, a name once forgotten but now everyone seemed to know it. Rick, never familiar with the case, was currently getting every last detail on it as his team and Horatio's worked their way through red tape and phone calls trying to gather up all the evidence they had ever had on it. They were divided over the workload, they still had the existing body of Kara Watkins to deal with and her only connection to Benjamin at the moment was his blood.

Kara's cause of death was strangulation but she had had traces of drugs in her system, which the M.E Tara Price had suggested might explain her behaviour before she had died. Kara had been drugged as well as drunk. The theory was that her killer had planted drugs in her drink and then followed her, waiting for the opportunity to kill her but both Rick and Horatio had tossed that. Someone like that was more liable to drag her down an alleyway and rape her before killing her not kidnap her, kill her, dress her up and then dump her. Sure it was still a plausible theory that they couldn't rule out but she hadn't been raped and the presence of Benjamin Bracker's blood suggested something much more sinister.

Rick stood outside beneath the Florida sunshine surveying a grand house with a grim expression. Old-fashioned, isolated, abandoned and oozing of lost wealth and decay, it was all a little too familiar for the lieutenant. He didn't want to go into it, hell he didn't even want to cross the threshold through the iron gates.

"Since when did Miami become a place for gothic mansions?" he quipped darkly.

Tobias gave him an easygoing grin, hoping to put Rick at ease with it. "Well sir Miami is popular with the wealthy and most of them are eccentric," he mused.

Rick glanced at Tobias out of the corner of his eye and frowned at his attempt at humour. Spying Eric standing past him he was grateful for Tobias' presence despite his jest.

They were standing outside the Bracker family mansion where, five years ago, a disturbing scene of murder had been discovered. Eric had been one of the original CSIs on the case, which was why he was here today. The other CSI had been the late Timothy 'Speed' Speedle. As Speed had been the one to insist there was enough evidence to confirm Benjamin Bracker to be a victim of foul play, the ever moody Eric was taking it very personally that there was now some serious doubt on that conclusion.

Tobias and Rick had looked at the crime scene photographs with a professional detachment. Used to scenes of macabre and gore, they had been unfazed but seeing the house before them made the images they had looked at seem a little bit more real.

"Are we just going to stand here?" Eric grumbled as he glanced at the other men. He wanted to be with Ryan on the fresh case of Kara, he didn't see the point in visiting the house and he certainly didn't enjoy having to put up with Rick while being here. Even Tobias was irritating him with the way he called Rick 'sir'.

"No Delko," Rick retorted bluntly.

Rick stepped forward, hand out to the iron gate, black paint long chipped off with age. No one had even bothered with a padlock or chain, the house relied on its creepy reputation to act as its security.

The property was in a disputed ownership, the heir was the only suspect in the murders and currently behind bars and therefore not capable of any kind of upkeep for the house or entitlement to it. It had meant they had to secure a warrant for today's trip but the oddity of Benjamin Bracker's blood had been enough for the judge to sign off on one.

"What are we even looking for?" Eric queried. "We were thorough and it's been five years."

"Eric, Benjamin was said to have died in this house but his blood just showed up on a dead girl," Tobias reminded him. "I don't know what we're looking for but either Benjamin didn't die in this house or our killer was involved with his death which means suspect number one for the Bracker Murders may have been wrongly convicted. Honestly, I'm not even sure which would be worse."

Eric glanced back at the blonde letting him see his expression of displeasure. "Are you implying we didn't do our jobs? You know, your friends at homicide agreed with the conclusion as did the jury and the judge," he added pointedly.

Tobias held his hands up in mock defence. "I'm just doing what we all do best, following the evidence," he said calmly.

Rick suppressed the urge to sigh. He had figured Eric was going to be a pain today but damn it they hadn't even entered the house yet and he was already in full asshole mode. Rick realised the irony of it given he was the one often accused of being an asshole but he still found it hard to summon the patience for the CSI.

Rick kept going up to the front door. It was set in a wooden porch and there had been a lazy attempt to board it up but the boards, like the porch, were rotted. There were still faint remnants of crime scene tape fluttering at the edges of the frame, a reminder of the horrors that had went on within. There was a lock of well, old and forgotten, one which Rick had been granted a key for.

Rick tensed at the thought of the anguish behind closed doors, imagining the screams as people had been hurt. He swallowed hard before shaking his head of memories of Garrett House. This wasn't there.

Rick used the key and then stretched to the door, it was stiff but came away from the frame as he gave a hard shove. He winced as he felt a pang in his stomach with the stretch, a reminder of the gunshot wound that had nearly ended his life a few months ago.

"You okay boss?" Tobias queried calmly.

Rick nodded without looking back, damned if he'd show any weakness before anyone especially Eric Delko. He continued to push the doors inwards and winced as he breathed in a mouthful of stale, dusty, dead air.

They stepped into a forgotten lobby with a grand, decaying staircase at the entry with a set of bannisters they all recognised too easily.

Eric stiffened slightly at the sight, unlike his two companions he had already been here before and seen first hand what they had only looked at in photos. It had been carnage but an odd sort of carnage, something messy and primitive. Hanging from the bannisters had been Rose Bracker, Benjamin's mother, her husband's body, Hunter Bracker, had littered the stairs, chopped up into unwanted pieces of bloody limbs. Their children- Viola, Bruce, Benjamin and Clara had all been unaccounted for initially. Viola had turned up in the garden pond, Bruce in body parts in a bag in a nearby copse, and Clara in a small room upstairs in the attic that had functioned as a play area. Benjamin remained missing save for blood spatters, it was concluded that he, like Bruce, was chopped up somewhere.

The sole survivor had ended up convicted as the killer. Eldest son Henry had been found laughing to himself in his bedroom stained in dried blood, seemingly there for days just like the bodies of his tortured family.

Bruising and ligature marks had indicated the deceased had all been bound up at one point before suffering numerous harms prior to death. It had all seemed too personal to be a stranger's doing and no alarm had been raised until the school had reported three days of absenteeism without explanation for Benjamin and Clara and a truancy officer had called to investigate.

Henry Bracker had shown no signs of being bound or detained but he claimed his innocence anyway. His family's wealth had been frozen by a judge but he had had over twenty grand of his own in a personal bank account. Despite this he hadn't bothered with securing a lawyer, allowing the courts to appoint one for him. His defence had been a babbled mess, an insistence that an evil spirit had done it. The jury had taken that for claims of possession or an attempt at insanity. They had been unimpressed. Henry Bracker had been declared sane and guilty.

Eric always felt it was one of those rare cases where the insane plea had actually been sincere but Henry Bracker had never pushed it. Henry had always been adamant that a figure wrapped in darkness had been present in his house torturing and murdering his family.

"If Benjamin didn't die here," Eric said coldly, "then either he was the real the killer, not Henry, and now someone else has conveniently hurt or killed him, or there really was someone else here doing all this."

"Scapegoating," Rick murmured dryly. He knew more than a thing or two about that having had people trying to blame him for the murders of the Garrett household, a young reporter and, more recently, a frame up involving corrupt cops. Rick bristled as he considered how his now incarcerated ex-boss Daniel Greene had attempted to make Rick look insane.

"Henry was left to be blamed, to throw everyone off the scent," Rick suggested, "and now we have Benjamin's blood either to throw us off the scent again from Kara Watkins' murder or because her killer wants us to know something about this Bracker case."

"Could Henry and Benjamin have done it together?" Tobias pondered.

The blonde studied the rotting lobby with only a mild interest. There was still an odour of death in the place, the clean up conducted out of the pocket of Hunter's brother- Matthias Bracker- who was slowly but surely get the rights to his brother's finances and estates. That was another messy business, the slayer rule, if you killed someone who had left you assets they you couldn't inherit so Henry as the sole heir wasn't getting any of his father's fortune, but Matthias had never been mentioned in any will as they next in line should all of Hunter's heirs die, and he had another brother and sister to quarrel it out with. As Matthias was rich in his own right no one considered him or his siblings as potential killers.

"It's possible," Eric said reluctantly, "but there was no evidence linking Benjamin to anything. Remember, Henry had Hunter, Rose and Clara's blood on him," he added moodily. That had been Speedle's find, a difficult one as most of the blood had mingled rendering it indeterminable but Tim Speedle had found enough minute traces on Henry's clothes that were pure and could only be linked to one person.

"But not Benjamin or Bruce's," Rick surmised.

"That we could determine," Eric added pointedly as he frowned over at the taller man. "The blood was all mixed up on him, most of the samples were corrupted because there was too much DNA mingled together."

"So Benjamin and Bruce's blood could have been on him as well, we don't know," Tobias concluded. "Messy, very messy." He shook his head before turning his gaze to the stairs. "Shall we?"

Eric continued to frown while Rick nodded.

"Delko you lead, you know the way to where Henry was found," Rick reminded him in a calm, quiet tone.

It was taking everything Rick had to be courteous to Eric. He was fed up with his frowns and glares already, probably because all he could think about was how Horatio still had to tell him about his engagement. Rick knew Eric would say something negative about it and he also knew that if Eric dared to voice something negative about Cassandra then Rick wasn't going to be able to resist a retaliation. Rick knew better than anyone that Cassandra was far from perfect but he knew all the reasons why as well and felt that she more than anyone deserved to be happy. He would be damned if he allowed Eric to put any kind of dampener on that.

Eric gave Rick the expected sullen look of defiance before he obeyed anyway. He headed up the stairs quickly, careful not to touch the dusty bannister. He paused briefly to glance to the right where Rose's body had been swinging. Eric was good at being numb to the job, putting cases from his mind because it was the only way to stay sane but there were always a few that were impossible to forget. The Bracker case was one of them for Eric. He recalled copious trips to the bars and nightclubs with Speedle to try and shake their unease over the case from them.

Eric's frown returned as he thought of his deceased friend. Shot mercilessly in a gun fight in a jewellery store after his own gun had jammed. Rick had come after it, suspicious that Speedle's gun was suffering from poor maintenance, Calleigh had covered it up by concluding the gun had simply malfunctioned it. Eric had hated Rick for his insensitivity over the murder and his attempts, right as they were, to insist Speedle had somewhat brought about his own death.

Eric glanced over his shoulder at Rick with another hostile brown stare. Rick had survived getting tortured and he had survived getting shot and Eric couldn't help but wonder why he was so fortunate when all it had taken was one gun shot to end Tim Speedle's life.

"Delko your face is going to stick that way soon," Rick remarked to him with his own look of hostility.

"I was just wondering if anyone looked into your gun maintenance when you got shot," Eric said icily before he promptly looked ahead.

"Eric," Tobias injected swiftly, "not the time or the place."

Rick tensed at the reminder and he scowled. He heard the sound of Officer Zebrowski's gun as it fired at him, catching him in his stomach. He had shot Zebrowski in the chest and just assumed he had gone down before he had shot at Detective Grayson. It had taken another shot to finish Zebrowski.

"I shot and killed an officer and a detective," Rick said numbly, "and then I shot a lieutenant, my gun worked fine."

"Rick," Tobias dropped formalities as he came to stand beside Rick on the staircase. He gave a sympathetic grey eyed gaze. "Let's focus on this case," he said quietly.

Rick nodded before he continued walking up the stairs.

* * *

It was quiet. The air was still and warm and the song of birds had settled for the afternoon. Far from being an unnerving silence it was a peaceful one. Horatio figured it was apt given his surroundings and likely to be the only peace he got today. To say he enjoyed it was a stretch too far, he could never enjoy coming here.

The redhead dropped to one knee and gave a bitter smile as he recalled the last time he had knelt before a woman he loved like this and wondered if it was a bitter omen. He tugged off his dark sunglasses with one hand and reminded himself that his stance was just habit.

The lieutenant looked ahead to the object of his attention- a gravestone. It was only a few years old, well kept with a modern design, it was actually two blocks of stone, one with an arch at its top and a plaque on the front reading Marisol Delko Caine with her dates of birth and death. Sometimes Horatio felt guilty as he studied the Caine, it was a name she had donned so briefly, the ink had barely been dry on the certificate, and it was a name that had led to her untimely death.

The name of Caine had always been a heavy one to bear- Horatio's mother had died a victim to his father, a father he in turn had murdered, and his younger brother Raymond Caine Sr who had been beaten to death in Brazil. Raymond's plot wasn't far from Marisol's, he occupied a grave that had been dug for him before he had been prepared to fill it.

"Marisol," Horatio addressed her softly, "I'm getting married again. I didn't think I ever would, I didn't think I'd love anyone again or risk them by tying them to me. Cassie makes me happy, all she's been through and all I've been through and still she smiles and makes me smile. I thought about how short life can be," he grimaced at his word choice before continuing on, "and realised I shouldn't wait to propose."

Horatio dipped his head slightly, taking in the fresh flowers someone had left, Eric he imagined but it could have easily been his mother or sisters.

"I would have never moved on from you in life," he assured, "and if moving on is something I should be forgiven for then I hope you forgive me." He smiled again and shook his head. "I know you would say there's nothing to forgive, even now I'm in denial. It's Eric I hope will forgive me. He thinks I'm replacing you when I could never do that, you and Cassie are two very different people and worse, he thinks I'm replacing him with Rick. He has so much hate for Rick and I can't blame him for that, I had a lot of hate for that man once too but I can't support it."

Horatio sighed and slipped his sunglasses back on as he turned his head back up to her name. "I don't know how to handle that Marisol and I wish you could tell me."

Horatio glanced at his watch. It was just after one, Cassandra would be waiting at the aquarium for him to collect her before they would get the girls after three from school.

Cassandra had never learnt to drive and when she had considered lessons last year the news that she couldn't because of both her poor vision and irregular headaches had put a swift stop to that. She had been frustrated and upset about the matter, long fed up with being a burden on friends and relations, their assurances that she wasn't a burden had meant little to her.

Cassandra had been adamant about taking public transport but Rick and Horatio knew she was too anxious for it- she had an understandable fear of being surprised by violent strangers and she despised the way people gawked at her facial scars. She wouldn't admit it to either her fiancé or brother but she couldn't hide it from them so together, with Natalia, Ryan, Yelina and Tobias, they had managed to ensure that someone was at hand to give her a lift when necessary or was at least available for her to ring for a lift. Sometimes, on a rare occurrence, Jack, Calleigh or Frank would have to offer their services but they usually did it amicably enough. Mostly, they dressed it up as helping the girls- Marissa and Annabelle - as it was usually them Cassandra was with save for when she needed lifts to and from work.

Horatio knew the other reason for Cassandra to be upset over it. It highlighted her lack of friends. Cassandra, before the murders of her half-sister, mother and stepfather, had spent a large quantity of her time in Cuba partying, drinking and generally trying to forget the miseries of her life. When she had returned to Miami she had only reconnected with Rick initially before becoming reacquainted with Tobias who had once been her prom date in high school.

Cassandra had informed Horatio that she hadn't had many friends in school because she couldn't bring anyone home and she couldn't visit anyone's house for long otherwise her stepfather got mad at her absences and punished her for them. Now she avoided friendships because the few she had attempted to welcome had turned out to be false. People at her work had spoken to her out of fascination for her grim history and morbid present, treating her as a freak rather than a friend and associating with her in an attempt to hear about Garrett House first-hand.

Cassandra didn't care that not everyone was the same, she was done making the effort and Horatio couldn't blame her. She seemed content and happy to have the people she did have in her life and the girls occupied most of her spare time anyway. It was only when she was left alone in her house to feel vulnerable to would be intruders or when she needed a lift and had only people she knew through Horatio and Rick to contact that Cassandra felt a need for a friend.

Horatio stretched out a hand to the gravestone, pressing his palm against the stone and enjoying the warmth he felt there. "I'll talk to you soon," he promised.

Horatio headed off for his car. He had had an extremely busy morning dealing with the news that someone thought dead for five years might either be not so dead or potentially far more recently dead. He was fortunate to have this afternoon to spend with Cassandra and the girls even if it meant errands to the shop and homework. Once, Horatio would have never bothered taking any kind of leave but after almost losing Rick last year, Horatio had realised prioritising was important. They all had.

* * *

Rick was surveying the door of the room Henry Bracker had been found in when the call came. He was the one who had spotted something that wasn't in any report, the minute scratches and discolouring on the door that suggested some form of lock or bolt might have been there. They were old doors, all with old fashioned key holes under the doorknobs but there had been no suggestion of usage according to Eric. All the bedrooms and bathrooms had them but the bathrooms had newer locks inside them as well.

Eric had also pointed out that no lock or bolt had been found on any of the doors five years ago other than what was there now and if there had been one on Henry's door which was then removed by a killer there would have been traces of a such a recent change.

Rick had murmured grimly that maybe it wasn't the killer who had used them or removed them. He knew he was thinking too closely of his own tarnished family home and he tried to shake it off but there was something all too familiar about this place. It had the same unsettling atmosphere of despair. Apparently no one had done much with the place since the deaths, Uncle Matthias was the one who had gotten it locked up but he hadn't won any entitlement to its lands or possessions.

Rick realised what was odd about the house but yet so familiar to him- the pictures or rather lack of. He figured they could be in the living room or bedrooms but there wasn't any sense of the former residents in the lobby, landing or hallway save for a couple of empty eyed paintings. He was certain that this had never been a happy household.

Rick's phone rang while Eric and Tobias studied Henry Bracker's bedroom. Rick was standing at the ajar door fixated on the lighter rectangular spot of paintwork, suggesting something had once been there. As there were other stains and warping and there was no bolt at the time of the murders he could understand how it wasn't noted. Hell he was only noticing it because he recognised that spot, a bolt to keep someone in a room not out of it.

Rick tugged out his phone on the second ring and answered. "Hello, Lieutenant Stetler speaking," he greeted politely.

Eric rolled his eyes at the title, thinking the man vain for always using it.

Rick tensed and frowned. "Is she alright?" he quipped. His right hand was crawling up to his tie before he could help it.

Eric and Tobias both turned with concern at the lieutenant's voice.

"Right, no, I'll be right there," Rick murmured as he yanked at his tie's knot.

Rick hung up the phone and pocketed it. "Shit," he muttered crossly as he raised his hand to push it through his dark hair.

"What's wrong?" Tobias pried.

Rick gazed in at the detective and CSI with exasperation before his dark stare turned apologetic. "I have to go," he said bluntly. "Annabelle threw up in class."

"Oh." Tobias' gaze brightened slightly and he smiled before he could help it. Seeing Rick's glower he held his hands up apologetically. "Sorry boss, I thought it was something worse. I've three kids, I've gotten that call many, many times," he mused. "Vomiting, headaches, nose bleeds, tripped over untied shoelaces and managed to get a sprained ankle." Tobias shook his head and chuckled.

The blonde detective gave his superior a reassuring look. "We'll be fine here and you'll be fine going," he remarked.

"What if she's got something?" Rick pondered worriedly.

Tobias laughed again. "Probably a minor bug if even, get her home, check her temperature, get her water and get her to bed, she will most likely be right as rain tomorrow. No food for the rest of the day unless she's really hungry," he advised, "then it's toast, minimal butter, no jelly or anything and no juice, just water."

"Right." Rick nodded awkwardly.

Eric gave a slight smirk at the man's unease. It was interesting to see Rick suddenly so anxious and nervous.

Rick rubbed at his hair again before fidgeting with his tie.

"What's the problem Rick?" Tobias pried.

Rick looked at him in agitation again. "I don't..." He sighed. "I don't know what her dad would have done for her, if there was some routine or some comfort toy or something." He bowed his head sheepishly and shook it. "I can't really get a handle on her, she doesn't let anyone in."

"Rick, it's enough just for you to be there," Tobias assured, "so go do that."

Rick glanced up at him and nodded. "Right, ring me or I'll ring you." He turned and headed from the house hastily.

* * *

It was just after two when Rick got a pale faced, watery eyed and vomit stained Annabelle back to their house. She had been quiet throughout the drive, tears streaking her face as she shuddered and gazed out the window forlornly.

The teacher hadn't said much, just commented that the girl had been her usual self this morning, which Rick knew meant quiet, painfully shy and a little anxious, and the vomiting had come out of nowhere. Annabelle had just hurled up over her desk in the middle of class before bursting into tears as the other children squealed in alarm.

Rick was relieved Marissa was in a different class and not caught up in the drama. He collected Annabelle dutifully and informed Cassandra of the news via text message, telling her she just needed to collect Marissa today and asking her to keep their niece from the house until he got Annabelle settled and worked out if what she had was potentially contagious or not.

Once home, Rick led Annabelle up to the bathroom to clean her up.

The girl continued to tremble as Rick ran a damp cloth under the tap. He glanced over at her sympathetically before ringing out the cloth.

"You can put your jammies on after we get you cleaned up," Rick said.

He turned, crouched down and began dabbing the cloth around her face. The tears continued to trickle down her cheeks but there were no more sobs.

"Do you still feel sick?" Rick pried.

Her headed bobbed up and down in an anxious nod.

"Alright, I'll get you a glass of water."

"Am I going to bed?" she queried hoarsely.

Rick lowered the cloth and studied her expression trying to work out what she wanted him to answer. "Do you want to?" he asked.

She shook her head as a sob emerged at last. "I didn't mean to be bad," she said sorrowfully.

Rick raised his eyebrows in surprise at this. "You weren't," he assured her. "You're not well that's all, no one's mad Annabelle."

Rick stood up and rinsed out the cloth before opened the cabinet behind the mirror. He took out the children's temperature strip and returned his attention to the young girl.

"Can I put this against your forehead and get your temperature?" he quipped. Rick held the strip out to her with one hand.

Annabelle glanced down at it and nodded.

Rick resumed his crouch and pressed the flat thermometer strip against the girl's forehead. "Do you want to lie down in the living room with me and we'll watch some cartoons?" Rick offered.

"Yes," she croaked out weakly.

"I'll get you water and the basin just in case," he said.

"Okay."

Rick checked the temperature, it was a little high but nothing alarming. He stood up again and returned the thermometer to the cabinet.

"Alright, you get your jammies on," he said, "and get whatever teddy or doll you want."

"Will you check my room first?" she queried with a fearful look.

Rick frowned before he could help it. He understood of course, Annabelle and Marissa always had him checking under their beds and in their wardrobes at night and neither would use the bathroom at night unless he or Natalia checked it first and then waited dutifully outside to escort them back to bed. Rick couldn't blame either one of them, they had both witnessed too many horrors in their young years from violent people, Marissa had almost been abducted more than once and Annabelle had been kidnapped. He doubted it was a terror either of them would ever fully outgrow but he was determined they had some mastery over it.

Rick made himself smile reassuringly, it might annoy him to check rooms every night and even upset him at times to think that the girls didn't fully trust his judgement but he knew it wasn't fair to blame them for it.

Rick held his hand out to Annabelle. "Let's go check now," he said.

She accepted, pressing a warm palm into his before allowing him to escort her to her bedroom.

Rick made a show of thorough check, under the bed and in the wardrobe before promising to wait upstairs while she got ready.

Annabelle changed into a set of pyjamas which were lilac and patterned with happy faced stars before exiting to the corridor with a stuffed dog that had a bandage about its paw.

"Which one is this?" Rick pried. He couldn't keep track of the names of the stuffed animals Annabelle was gradually gathering. It was easier with Marissa, she had one favourite, her doll Becky, a gift from Cassandra many years ago and that she was only recently getting weaned off.

"Penny," Annabelle retorted hoarsely. "She's sick too."

Rick nodded sympathetically before extending his hand out again. "Alright, well you, me and Penny can go watch some cartoons now."

Annabelle took his hand. "My tummy is still sore," she complained.

"Well I can't do much for that but I'll get you some water and the basin, the water will help a little," Rick said.

They headed to the living room where Rick got Annabelle settled on the couch, lying down on the cushions with a blanket over her. He put on the cartoons before heading to fetch a glass of water and the basin. When he returned, at her insistence, he sat on the couch with her instead of occupying another seat.

Annabelle threw up another couple of times as the hours drifted by. Sore and upset, she cried until Rick drew her against him, cradling her loosely before placing her head on a cushion on his lap and singing nursery rhymes to her until she nodded off.


	6. Chapter 6- In Sickness and Health

When Natalia finally arrived home it was just after six. She stepped into her home and hastily juggled a large, brown paper bag and her keys as she fumbled with the alarm code to silence the sensor she had triggered. Once silenced, she locked the door and reset the sensor before heading up the hall.

The security system was an adjustment, sure she'd have liked it in her old home, especially when her ex-husband Nick had re-entered her life but it was pricey so she'd been stuck with the old chain and lock. This system of external CCTV cameras combined with an alarm system at the front and back doors and sensors at the same entry points was a tad more than Natalia was used to in her daily life and it was definitely a deeper dig into her pay cheque than she was used to. Yet, since it made everyone in the home feel a little safer, it was an adjustment she was willing to make.

Natalia reached for the door to the living room as she heard the dull sound of the television from within. The room was dim, shrouded in shadows as the curtains were drawn and only the glow of the television offered any artificial light. The volume of the television was low to the point of it being little more than white noise.

Natalia paused to take in the occupants of the couch with a warm smile. Rick was slouched over, asleep Natalia suspected until she had entered the room, and still fast asleep was Annabelle in his lap.

"Tough day Lieutenant Stetler?" Natalia quipped quietly.

Rick blinked back the fatigue from his eyes before attempting to glance at his companion without moving. It was difficult as he had been bent against the arm of the sofa and had to twist his neck slightly to glimpse the young girl.

Rick looked from Annabelle to Natalia. "Yep," he retorted bluntly, careful to keep his voice low so as not to disturb Annabelle. "I don't know what was worse, work or after it."

Natalia's smile widened. "Eric couldn't quite contain his enthusiasm for working with you," she jested, "or so the rumours go." Her brown eyes saddened slightly and her smile dimmed. "He doesn't exactly talk to me much anymore."

Rick frowned, annoyed at both the reminder of Eric and the reminder of Eric and Natalia's past relationship.

Natalia spied Rick's scowl and smiled again. "Rick don't get sore about it, I miss him as a friend, that's all. Anyway," she gave the bag she was holding a light shake, "I bought a few things for dinner, are you hungry?"

"Sure. Suppose I need to contact Cassie, and Detective Frost, and work out what time it is," Rick murmured wearily.

Annabelle had been sleeping on and off for a few hours in between a few minor bouts of vomiting and watching cartoons. The unwillingness to wake her with any movement when she did sleep had made Rick lose all sense of time. He had had to empty and rinse out the basin three times but he didn't think she had thrown up in at least a couple of hours which was good.

"It's just after six, I've already spoken to Cassie and she's keeping Mari for the night," Natalia reassured him. "Tobias," she added with a small smile as she avoided using his title like Rick, "and Eric finished up in the Bracker house. Horatio and Ryan ran through some footage of Kara Watkins and spoke to some witnesses. They think she was abducted from the main street just down from Midnight Secrets, a shop had CCTV of her stumbling down there but there's no footage to show her getting taken."

Rick nodded. "I'll have to look into it," he murmured.

"Tomorrow Rick, you're off duty, stay with Annabelle," Natalia insisted, "I'll let you know when dinner's ready."

"Alright Nat, thanks," Rick said sincerely.

Natalia nodded before she exited the room and shut the door as softly as she could.

Rick put his head back against the edge of the couch and closed his eyes.

Annabelle stirred just ten minutes later, ensuring that Rick wasn't going to be returning to sleep. She awoke with a subdued groan of anxiety as she tried to gage where she was.

Rick sat up promptly, wary that there might be another spell of vomiting coming.

Annabelle pushed back her tangled fair hair and glanced up at the man with tired eyes. "Can I have water?" she queried hoarsely.

Rick nodded as he glanced to the right where he was certain he had left the glass. It was there, only a quarter full but it would do for now. Rick handed it over to the young girl.

Annabelle seized it and sipped at it greedily, sipping only because Rick had scolded her twice already about gulping since it had only led to a rush of watery vomit. She finished the glass and handed it back to Rick.

"Do you want some more?" Rick pried.

The young girl nodded quietly.

Rick pressed the back of his hand against her brow and was relieved to find it a little cooler than it had been earlier in the day.

"Alright, do you want to come with me to the kitchen and see Natalia?" Rick queried.

Annabelle nodded shyly at this. "Is Mari home?" she asked hopefully.

Rick shook his head. "No, she's staying with Aunt Cassie tonight," he explained. He was dismayed to see the confused sorrow that filled Annabelle's face. "We wouldn't want her getting sick too, would we?" he remarked gently.

Annabelle's sorrow turned to guilt. "No," she croaked.

Rick spied her dog teddy lying on the floor and plucked it up. "Hey," he addressed her gently as he held the teddy up beneath his chin, "is it Penny's fault she has a sore paw?" he quipped, alluding to the bandage around the stuffed dog's front paw.

Annabelle shook her head. "No."

Rick smiled before reaching out to tap her head lightly with Penny's plastic nose. "Then it's not your fault you're sick," he assured. "You bring Penny with us, she's probably thirsty too."

Annabelle took the dog in both hands and hugged her close to her chest.

Rick stood up with the empty glass in one hand and held out his free hand expectantly to the girl.

Annabelle took the hand, letting Penny hang by her side in one hand, as she allowed Rick to lead the way to the kitchen.

The smell of rice and chicken cooking greeted them as they stepped through.

Rick glanced to Annabelle with a sudden worry as he wondered if the smell of food might make her nauseous. She seemed alright although she had raised Penny to her face. It took Rick a moment to realise that she was attempting to hide behind the stuffed animal from Natalia.

"Hey honey," Natalia greeted warmly as she turned from the pot of rice to give the girl a smile, "how are you feeling?"

Annabelle lowered the dog teddy and looked up at Natalia with the same sorrowful guilty gaze she had given Rick. "Okay," she said glumly.

"Hmm." Natalia raised her hands to her hips. "Just okay? Well that's no good, what can we do to make you happy? Are you hungry? Would you like some toast?"

Annabelle shook her head.

"Just water," Rick answered for her.

"Ah." Natalia gave Annabelle another smile. "From the fridge?" she suggested. "With ice?"

An eagerness suddenly brightened the girl's face as she glanced over at the fridge/freezer. It had double doors and offered water, ice cubes (which were actually crescent shaped) and crushed ice from a nozzle at the front. It was a gadget Rick scorned as unnecessary but offered an unlimited joy to the girls who took a delight in playing with it, when they could get away from it.

"Well since you're not well I think you should get to pour a big glass yourself," Natalia suggested. "Although maybe you'll let Rick help?" She cocked her head slightly as she gave Annabelle a mock quizzical look.

Annabelle turned a shy, hopeful stare up to Rick.

Rick suppressed the urge to sigh. "I'll get a cup," he said. "Plastic," he added firmly.

"Which one do you want honey?" Natalia queried. "Do you want your pony cup?"

Annabelle nodded. "Can I push the ice button?" she asked.

"Of course," Natalia answered happily. "Now, I've got to finish the dinner for me and Rick, do you want to sit at the table with us?"

"Okay."

Natalia turned her attention back to the rice whilst Rick attempted to hunt out the desired glass.

Dinner was a calm affair. Annabelle was satisfied with her large glass of crushed ice and water and sat at the table quietly, cuddling Penny and fiddling with the Salt and Pepper shakers, which were styled as sea lions and were an eccentric gift from Cassandra.

Once dinner was done, Natalia took Annabelle upstairs for a bath, on the promise that she could watch some more cartoons with Rick before bed.

Rick stayed downstairs, tidying the kitchen until a call from Cassandra disturbed him.

"Hey Cassie," he greeted wearily.

"Hey Rick," she responded chirpily, "how's Annabelle?"

"Better I think," he said, afraid to jinx it. "How's Mari?

"That's good. Mari's grand. I was calling to see if you want me to take her to her appointment tomorrow."

"Appointment?" For a moment Rick was puzzled. "Shit," he cursed out his realisation. Marissa had a doctor's appointment at nine in the morning to discuss her medication for her heart. He scratched at his hair as he paced the kitchen. "No, you've got work," he murmured.

"Not until twelve," Cassandra reassured. "I'm fine to take her Rick, I just wanted to confirm."

Rick frowned, knowing that Cassandra had no means of transport to take Marissa. "How are you going to get there?" he pried.

Rick could guess his sister was frowning now, annoyed at his question as it suggested she couldn't deal with her niece's needs independently. Rick didn't mean it like that but they had to be logical, he wasn't going to risk Marissa missing an important appointment because her aunt was stubborn.

"A taxi," Cassandra said flatly.

Rick sighed.

"God damn it Rick," Cassandra snapped crossly before he could speak, "don't you sigh at me! Let me do this, you have a sick kid in your house, worry about that!"

"Cassie I'm not trying to fight with you," he said wearily.

"Then we're agreed, I'll take Mari tomorrow. Good talking to you Rick, I hope Annabelle stays well."

The phone line went dead.

"God you'd think she was still a teenager sometimes," Rick grumbled to himself as he pocketed his mobile.

He ran a hand through his dark hair before turning his stern stare on the kitchen. The dishes were in the dishwasher and he had rubbed the table with a cloth. He figured it would do and headed out of the room, moving for the living room. It was tempting to go the fridge and grab a beer to bring with him if only to ease the edge he was on just a little but he couldn't. He'd promised Annabelle cartoons and he didn't feel right doing that with alcohol on his breath, even if it would just be one drink.

Exhausted, Rick was relieved to be back on the couch again. He channel hopped as he waited for Annabelle, trying to avoid the news in case Kara Watkins popped on reminding him of his work woes.

* * *

At the Caine/Silverstone household, Horatio stepped out of the bathroom and into the bedroom as Cassandra finished the call with her brother. He kept his expression carefully neutral, trying to tactfully pretend he had not heard her shouting when they both knew he had.

"Don't you say a thing," Cassandra grumbled at him with a glower, "I'm taking Marissa to her appointment tomorrow, it's not difficult!"

Horatio nodded.

Cassandra continued to frown at him. "I can do these things you know, I'm not the only person in Miami getting by without a car."

"Cassie I didn't say anything," Horatio pointed out softly.

"But you're thinking it," she accused, "I can tell."

"Cassie honey I'm thinking if you do need a lift anywhere tomorrow then ask, if you don't, that's alright."

Cassandra continued to frown, not entirely mollified by Horatio's retort.

"There's something else," Horatio admitted. He was reluctant to say what he had to. It was something he had meant to tell Cassandra this morning before work but it had slipped his mind and it was only after receiving a text from Kyle earlier this evening that he had been reminded. "I'm seeing Kyle tomorrow," he confessed, "for a couple of hours. I want to tell him our news," he added with a faint hint of a smile.

"Oh."

Cassandra pushed a hand through her pale blonde waves before her dark stare darted over to a corner of the room. She had met the mysterious Kyle only briefly in passing because his mother Julia had expressed a hostility towards Horatio's girlfriend and because Kyle himself didn't seem to have much interest in his father's partner. It was odd to think now that she would technically be the teenager's mother-in-law one day.

Cassandra turned her stare back on Horatio, having forced it to be calmer. "Well I'm in work from twelve until five anyway," she muttered. "Or do you mean you're seeing him in the evening?"

"Dinner," Horatio explained. "I haven't spent any time with him in a while," he reminded her.

"I haven't stopped you," Cassandra retorted angrily.

Horatio raised his golden-auburn eyebrows slightly at this. "I didn't say you had." He thought sardonically how whilst Cassandra and Rick might be very close they had a knack for putting each other in a bad mood very easily.

"Will you be alright to have dinner alone?" Horatio queried.

Cassandra's frown deepened as anger pooled into her dark eyes.

Horatio realised his mistake too late.

"What is with you and Rick?" she snapped as she waved her hands out angrily. "Or is it me?" She pushed her hands into her chest to gesture to herself. "Am I made of glass? Should I stay locked in the house, helpless?"

Horatio shook his head, still calm although he was starting to feel annoyance with the woman's anger. "Cassie that is not what I meant although you have been through a lot in life and you can't get mad at people for caring. You have a lot of trauma to carry and no one blames you for that."

Cassandra waved one hand outwards crossly. "Have dinner with Kyle, have fun, I'll be fine."

She spun around from him and headed for the door. "I'm getting a snack."

Horatio watched her go with a weary expression and cursed Rick inside his head even though, having heard the conversation from the bathroom, that it wasn't really Rick's fault Cassandra was in a rage. The truth was he and Rick would both be worrying about her tomorrow and wondering about her getting Marissa to the doctor's and then school and neither would relax until they had confirmation that it had all gone ahead smoothly. It was a confirmation, Horatio realised Cassandra was liable to keep from them for a while as punishment. When the blonde got in a bad mood she had a habit of ignoring their phone calls.

He glanced at his watch. It was only after seven although it felt later. He exited from the bedroom too and headed for the living room. It wasn't often Horatio had an evening free in the house and he wasn't entirely used to it. Miami never slept and the crime never ceased and whilst he was strictly speaking in charge of the day shift that hadn't stopped his work from leading him to night time call outs at bars, nightclubs and hotels to interview suspects and witnesses or check fresh crime scenes. He was trying to regulate his shifts better for Cassandra, knowing she hated to be alone at night but also because he wanted to have more time with her. More often than not his time with Marisol had been during work hours and he didn't want his relationship with Cassandra to be that way. Then there was Kyle to consider and the girls, Marissa and Annabelle.

Horatio stepped in the living room and sat on the powder blue couch. He glanced at the remote on the coffee table, which had sand grains and seashells under its glass top and had come from Cassandra and Rick's former home. Horatio wasn't one for lazing back to watch television, he had no interest in soap operas or reality shows and the news was always grim. He flicked it on and scanned down for the channels which just offered music, no cheesy videos or irritating reality shows spliced in, just music.

Picking a jazz channel, Horatio turned his attention to the bio orb that dominated the right side of the room and housed two very spoiled goldfish- Bugsy and Lucky. They too had come from Cassandra and Rick's home but with good reason, Horatio had bought them and their tank as a gift for Cassandra and Marissa, a gift Rick had never seemed to appreciate.

Ten minutes past before Cassandra appeared, clutching a bag of cookies. She took a seat beside Horatio wordlessly.

Horatio reached up his right arm and placed it across her shoulders. "You're brave Cassie," he murmured to her gently, "strong for what you have survived and tough. I don't think you're made of glass, I think you're human like the rest of us."

He turned and kissed her cheek gently.

She nodded. "Okay Horatio. I just, if Rick said he was taking Marissa tomorrow he wouldn't the questions and the protests."

"Cassie that's a little unfair, Rick is a trained cop. No one is underestimating you honey but you have to recognise your own limitations too."

Cassandra stiffened slightly and bowed her head to the bag of cookies in her lap. She knew Horatio was right but that didn't mean she had to like it. She reached for another cookie. "Can we talk about something else?" she queried. "Do you think we could have cookies at the wedding?"

Horatio smiled. "Sure. What kind?"

"Chocolate chip," she mused before chewing on the one in her hand. "Snickerdoodles for Mari, peanut butter for Rick, if he's not being a sanctimonious ass," she grumbled. "Hmm what are we having for you? You don't like cookies, which is weird by the way."

Cassandra gave her fiance a scornful stare but this time it was light-hearted.

"For you I'll have at least one," Horatio offered.

Cassandra smiled before leaning forward to kiss him. "Do you think we could work that into our vows? In sickness and in health, I promise to provide snacks for cupboard and for shelf?"

Horatio shook his head even as he smiled.

* * *

_I have no idea why I struggled so much with this chapter but I did. I was on the first page for I don't know how many weeks and even though I know where I'm taking the story overall I really stalled here. Then I had problems with my laptop. Apologies for the long wait._


	7. Chapter 7- The Big Announcement

Horatio was exhausted as he entered the Miami-Dade building. Last night had been what he deemed a 'bump night', which entailed Cassandra suffering nightmares and sleepwalking. Usually he was able to wake her up and settle her back with ease but this time no sooner than she was asleep she was struggling with another variation of her nightmare. The trouble was it stemmed from an all too real memory- the day Cassandra had been forced to kill a man who had not only been hell bent on killing her brother and torturing her but had previously kidnapped and tortured them with help and was responsible for murdering her half-sister Gillian and her mother and stepfather. It was a horrifying memory Cassandra had largely tried to push away but every now and then it bubbled to the surface, usually coming to plague her sleep.

Horatio hadn't had a chance to discuss it with her this morning. She had been in a rush to get Marissa sorted for her doctor's appointment, adamant that they were getting a taxi to it. There had been a brief bicker between her and Horatio over who was paying for the taxi there and whatever transport followed to get Marissa to school and Cassandra home and then to work. In the end, Horatio had won and given Cassandra enough notes to ensure she was covered for travel costs.

Marissa was another mild worry. Horatio knew she had been disturbed by her aunt's cries in the night but when he had went to check on her she had been lying in bed with her eyes closed. Not fully believing she was asleep but not wishing to disturb her if she wanted left alone, Horatio had left her as she was. Of course the door to the spare room and his and Cassandra's bedroom has stayed open as a precaution. It was a double edged sword doing that as it meant whilst Horatio could keep an ear out for the young girl, she was also more exposed to her aunt's noises in the night.

Horatio tugged out his phone before he heading for the lab and dialled Rick.

Rick answered on the third ring.

"Morning Horatio," Rick greeted bluntly.

Horatio gave a small grin, the fact that Rick bothered to say 'morning' at all was a marked improvement. The redhead knew it was Natalia's influence, an argument that just because people knew what time of day it was did not mean it was stupid to acknowledge it.

"Morning Rick," Horatio retorted politely. "How is Annabelle?"

"Better," Rick murmured bluntly.

Horatio believed the man sounded as tired as he felt and knew there was more to it. "Has she stopped being sick then?" he pried.

"Yeah, stopped last night." Rick paused and Horatio heard the rustle of material that he guessed was the man undoubtedly fiddling with the knot of his tie as he always seemed to when he was stressed. "I think it was maybe around twelve."

"You sound tired Rick." Horatio decided to go for the obvious in the hopes of better getting an explanation that way.

"Yeah, she was upset," Rick murmured. "She was crying for her dad, I didn't really know what to do." Rick let out a laboured sigh. "Just kind of kept responding when she cried, I don't know if that's the wrong thing to do or not, it's not like she's a baby crying or anything. Anyway, I ended up sitting in her room until four in the end, at least I think it was four."

Horatio felt a certain amount of empathy although he couldn't voice it as he wasn't going to have Rick worrying about Cassandra as well.

"We're keeping her off school today," Rick explained, "as a precaution. I'm going to mind her this morning then Nat's taking over. I'll be going through the original case notes on the Bracker case," he added.

Horatio started walking down the metal steps towards the labs. "What's your feeling on that one?" he queried.

"Benjamin Bracker didn't die then," Rick said bluntly. "It doesn't stand to reason that he's the only one in the family who didn't turn up. Also, his father and brother Bruce were chopped up but we're to believe his blood was...harvested," he added awkwardly. "If it was it wouldn't have been so recent looking I don't think. I know you can preserve blood but for five years after you've gotten it? I don't know, none of it makes sense. I know this goes against what CSI Speedle concluded but I have a lot of queries about the Bracker business. At some point I want to speak to Henry Bracker."

Horatio suppressed a sigh. It was hard hearing Speedle's name again and harder thinking that it was because he might have come to the wrong conclusion with a case.

"I'm going to see if our M.E is ready to release Kara's body to her family," Horatio admitted. "The senator would like it and I don't think we've much more to gain from it. Eric should have the results back on the liquid on her as well."

"Have you told him yet?" Rick's question was sudden and blunt.

Horatio paused as he reached the entrance to the labs, knowing his phone signal would start to drop a little. He was ready to welcome the cool and darkness, feeling the environment might help with his fatigued form.

"No," he admitted, knowing exactly what Rick was asking.

"Do it soon," Rick grumbled, almost in a scold. "Natalia wants to do some celebration thing," he added moodily, "for Cassie."

"Oh, well I'll tell him today."

"Yeah. Don't think I'm doing anything for you," Rick added pointedly, "you don't even have a date yet."

"Actually we're hoping to do that this week," Horatio confessed, "sort the date that is. We were discussing a small ceremony so we could do it soon, on the beach maybe."

"Right."

Even though he couldn't know for sure, Horatio was somehow certain that Rick was now giving a mocking grin.

"She'll have you tormented with colour schemes and themes," Rick taunted. "Think of the rest of us before you give into nonsense."

"I have to live with her Rick," Horatio reminded him softly. "Besides, she does consider your needs," Horatio gave a small smile, "she was talking about peanut butter cookies just for you."

Rick let out a swear. "Cookies?" he snapped.

"Mmm hmm. Anyway Rick, I'm going to the labs now to see what we've learned about Kara. I'll call you later."

"Sure."

Horatio hung up the phone at last and headed through to the locker area to change into his lab coat. His mood had shifted to mild uncertainty, a mood he was rarely troubled by. He didn't just have Eric's reaction to his proposal to consider but Kyle and Julia's as well. He didn't even have a plan for dinner tonight, he just knew he needed to make time for Kyle and he needed to tell him about the engagement.

Horatio realised there was a certain irony to the fact that he was more nervous about telling Eric and Kyle about his engagement than he had been trying to get engaged to Cassandra. He supposed it was because Frank's intrusive phone call and Rick's interruption had banished his nerves as he had tried to propose, along with Cassandra's reassurances that she was saying yes before he had even asked the question.

Horatio headed on through to the labs, pausing to greet Calleigh politely with a nod and a hello before he moved on. He knew he wouldn't have to worry about her reaction, Calleigh would just be happy Horatio was happy although she would have a certain amount of sympathy for Eric. Horatio spied Eric out of the corner of his eye at a lab table inspecting a read out of results and knew he had to discuss Kara Watkins with him. He wondered if he was best just getting his news out of the way first.

Horatio approached Eric with his usual calm. He was appreciative of the coolness of the labs and also the quiet in Eric's sector as all the lab staff present were occupied with their own work.

"Hey H," Eric greeted brightly with a small smile.

"Morning Eric," Horatio retorted politely. "Do you have the results for the substance on Kara Watkins?"

Eric nodded eagerly. "Yeah, an odd mixture, frankincense oil and olive oil," he explained. "Wolfe was looking into the halo and the wings, he said he believed they were handmade. Something about the feathers, you can ask him."

Horatio nodded as he puzzled over the oils.

"I was looking into the oils, I mean they have a variety of uses but there's one they have in common," Eric said.

"Religious," Horatio retorted bluntly. "My chapel would use a perfumed olive oil for Confirmation and it would be burned in the altar lamp," he explained.

Eric looked relieved that he didn't have to go into detail. "Right and frankincense is sometimes used for anointment for people entering new spiritual phases," Eric replied.

"So, she's removed of her wordly possessions, dressed as an angel, posed in prayer, and effectively anointed," Horatio surmised. "Most strange is the presence of the blood of a man in our system who was thought to have been dead for five years."

"Not thought," Eric grumbled defiantly, "he has to have been H, saying he's been alive and just missing all these years is what doesn't make sense."

The redhead looked to his co-worker with a calming blue stare. He could see the annoyance in Eric's face and knew it wasn't going to take much to anger him today.

"Eric I understand you don't want anyone criticising Speedle's work but that's not what is happening here," Horatio remarked. "We aren't doing our jobs if we dismiss the presence of Benjamin Bracker's blood, that does warrant a reinvestigation into his case. We need to find the connection between him and Kara."

Eric bristled slightly before forcing his stare to calm. He knew better than to get in an argument with his boss. He glanced down at his sheet of results briefly where there was a breakdown of percentages of the components of the oils. He hadn't much to go on with the Kara Watkins' case and truthfully he didn't want it when it was tied into an old case of the late Tim Speedle. Eric had plenty of other cases to be getting on with and was quite willing to believe the priority on this one was as much because of the weirdness of Benjamin Bracker's blood being present as it was because the victim was a senator's daughter. There was no denying Senator Bracker had some powerful connections.

"Well Benjamin was sixteen when it happened," Eric murmured, "which is the same age Kara would have been then. I mean Benjamin came from money and Kara too, could they have known each other?" Eric pondered aloud.

"Find out Eric," Horatio instructed.

Eric gave the lieutenant a serious look as he nodded confidently.

"I have to talk to CSI Wolfe now," Horatio said, "but I would like to talk to you later about another matter. Could we get coffee in private?" Horatio suggested.

Eric was a little surprised by the request. He didn't think he and Horatio had ever gone for coffee or even shared it while travelling to cases. He and Horatio had never really socialised much. Up until very recently Horatio had been a very private man who Eric didn't think even had much of a life outside work but thanks to this little group Wolfe and the others had going on now Horatio did, on occasion, socialise. Eric was a little jealous of course that he wasn't a part of it but he knew that it was by choice yet it angered him too that he couldn't socialise with Horatio without Rick in tow as well.

"Sure," Eric agreed, more intrigued by the offer than the reason for it. He glanced at his watch. "Would ten suit?"

Horatio gave a flicker of a smile. "Perfect, I'll meet you here."

Horatio walked off to find Ryan next.

* * *

Cassandra stared at her supervisor in disbelief as she tried to keep her budding annoyance from her face. "I definitely did not call to say I wouldn't be in," she insisted.

The bright morning was already warm and promising to be another delightfully hot day in Miami. Here in the shade of the underwater viewing sector for the sea lions was usually one of Cassandra's favourite places to be at work but right now she was in too much of a temper to enjoy the relief of the shade or the soothing effect of the sea lions swimming by.

Cassandra's supervisor, a thirty-something, tall, pale brown haired man called Glenn, regarded her in exasperation. "Cassie, Mike took the call, he says it was you, something about taking your niece somewhere."

Cassandra's dark eyes widened slightly. "I had to take her for an appointment this morning but I never phoned anyone about it," she insisted. She pushed up her glasses and frowned. "I didn't tell anyone at work about it," she added.

Glenn shrugged. "Why would Mike make something like that up?" he demanded. "How could he even make it up, if you didn't tell anyone, how would he know where you were?"

"I don't know but I didn't call," she retorted angrily. "Glenn, I'm here now, can we just drop it?"

She pushed up her turquoise cap slightly before adjusting the yellow rimmed visor. Cassandra liked her uniform overall, a shorts and t-shirt combo, it appealed to her inner beach girl and she loved the oceanic turquoise and sunshine yellow colour combination plus the cartoon animals on the t-shirt were adorable and the cap was both useful for the sun and to help hide the scars on her face.

"Sure Cassie," Glenn retorted. He glanced down at the clip board he had in his left hand and ran a finger down the list attached there. "But I've already got Rhonda covering the sea lions so you'll have to go cover the shark tower."

Cassandra couldn't hide her displeasure from her face as she tensed up at this. She had once been attacked in the shark tower by someone with a grudge against Horatio and had earned a painful scar on the back of her neck for her troubles. Her right hand reached up instinctively to rub at the scar as she looked at Glenn appealingly.

"Is there nowhere else?" Cassandra pleaded.

Glenn shook his head. "No," he said firmly. "Go do the shark tower Cassie."

Glenn grabbed a pen from his pocket and scribbled something on the clipboard before he walked off.

Cassandra let out a string of muttered curses before glancing to the sea lion viewing tank with woe. "Gonna miss you guys today," she muttered as two dark shapes streaked past.

She was already considering the day a mixed bag. She had gotten Marissa to her appointment fine and it had been positive, although there was a change in medication and another test to schedule and so much paperwork the blonde had stressed a little about signing the wrong thing or giving the wrong information. She knew she would have to ask Rick to check over it if he could but her stubborn side was reluctant to show that she had concerns over her own actions today. Then trying to get a taxi to take them on to Marissa's school had been both difficult and expensive.

Although Cassandra was reluctant to pay a further fee to get her from home to work, she had not been happy when Rick had called to ask if she needed help before he headed to work. She had snapped at him that Marissa was fine and at school in one piece before hanging up to schedule another expensive taxi trip, determined that she could through the day without assistance.

Cassandra headed for the shark tower slowly. It was the central feature of the aquarium, a forbidding looking tower block from the outside, within it was a spiral of a giant tank of sharks divided into layers only on the inside. Cassandra hated it because it felt less like the sharks were the contained creatures on display and more like the visitors trapped within the tower of glass and water were.

She had to make herself smile as she walked, well aware that she was representing the aquarium as she strode past visitors in her uniform. Some barely noticed her, some men ogled her butt in her shorts and one even let out a low whistle at her tanned legs and then there were the gawkers of course. In her youth it had because of her slender, sun kissed figure but now, even though she had still managed to maintain that enviable beach body to a degree, people gawked at it less, never noticing it because their gazes rarely drifted below her face. The pink slices of wounded flesh down her eyes took all the attention, scars left by a man who bore the same surname as her, a psychotic murderer who had left her scarred physically and mentally and ensured that she would always bear the reminder on her face and that people would always be able to look and know who she was.

Cassandra twisted her free strands of blonde hair about as she walked, flicking hair back and forth as she tried to add some coverage to her scars. The one on the back of her neck was concealed but starting to itch now. A cigar burn, it wasn't as bad as the ones at the front but as another reminder of her weakness she loathed it just as much.

She reached the shark tower and entered through the double doors on the bottom, bypassing the eager queues. It was always a big draw with the crowds, anything to do with sharks usually was. Cassandra didn't get it, much as she loved the ocean she hated sharks. Their eyes were soulless and all they did was swim and eat, they were murderous machines and had no playfulness or hint of personality in them like seals and seal lions, or the otters she loved to go and spoil with fish.

She tensed as the shadow of a sand tiger shark covered her briefly before the beast vanished into the gloom of the water.

Cassandra walked up a level, treading on soft, grey carpet past some softly cooing observers. She tensed as she saw a man lingering ahead before he turned to snap a picture of a shark on his phone. Just a harmless visitor. She sucked in a breath as she started to rub the back of her neck. She remembered her face being forced against the glass as her arm was twisted behind her back, and she remembered the sudden feeling of vulnerability and the fear of what her captor would do and could do. It could've been worse, she knew that and it made her terrified to think if it had been she would have been powerless to stop it.

Her breath slipped out and she made herself continue on. Her job here always felt unsecure because of incidents like that, thrown in with the fact that she didn't have a 'visitor pleasing face', not that her boss would actually say it outright lest he risk a lawsuit but she knew he thought it, everyone did. She rubbed harder at her neck, turning the flesh red with the pressure. Back and front she was marked, back and front she was scarred, there was no escaping it.

Cassandra felt eyes upon her again, two teenaged girls were openly staring at her with wide eyes as they muttered excitedly to each other. They had their backs to the glass, unconcerned with the predator swimming behind them.

Cassandra felt anger budding up within her as she realised, to them, she was the star attraction.

* * *

It was just after five and Horatio was full of an unsettling anxiety he didn't know how to banish. To say coffee with Eric had gone poorly was an understatement. To say it was a colossal mess was probably closer. It was hours ago with much paperwork and two new cases in between then and now and yet Horatio still couldn't banish it from his mind.

Eric hadn't been able to hide his anger and, worse, his obvious sense of betrayal from his face when Horatio had made the announcement. When Horatio had queried quietly if Eric had expected him to remain a widower forever, Eric's serious stare had made it clear that yes, he had.

Eric hadn't raged or yelled, he had just stormed off, silent but shaking, trembling with an anger Horatio knew had undoubtedly erupted from him moments later. He got the confirmation of that two hours later.

Eric had had to reunite with Rick and company to go through some notes on the Bracker case. All Horatio had heard, from Sergeant Tripp, was that it hadn't been easy keeping people apart and that whilst Eric wasn't fully to blame for the fight that had happened he had certainly started it. Apparently there had been some colourful mumblings about 'Rick's trampy sister', who was deemed 'a trouble seeking blonde who used Horatio for stability and money'. The problem, Frank had advised Horatio in a moody phone call, was that Eric hadn't just set off Rick but Detective Frost as well.

Now Eric was off the Bracker case and CSI Wolfe was scrambling to play catch up whilst juggling his own case loads. It had been Frank's call to banish Eric from the scene but he had left it to Horatio to pick the replacement. As Wolfe was on Kara Watkins' case he seemed the obvious choice.

Horatio knew there were things he wasn't being told, that Rick had probably swung for Eric but it was all being hushed up so no one lost their job over it. Horatio was grateful for that as he blamed himself for the mess. He figured he should have handled telling Eric better about the engagement but he couldn't work out how. His conversation about it with Eric had been all too brief as Eric hadn't given him much time before storming off.

Now here he was, in a public restaurant facing down his son and wondering what his reaction was going to be.

Horatio and Kyle were seated outdoors on the main road with a nice view of the sea. Torches burned in brass bowls hanging from chains and put Horatio in mind of altar lamps and Kara. He frowned momentarily before fixing his blue gaze on his son as he wondered how to even begin.

Kyle was in many ways the average teen- moody, hormonal, stubborn, bratty and, at times, selfish but in other ways he was very abnormal. Kyle had grown up never knowing his father because his mother had never really known him, to her he had been John Walden, a man who surely wouldn't want a child, an untraceable ghost. Worse, Julia had never made up for that absence by being a stable parent, she had raised Kyle in an uncertain world, exposing him to crime and violent figures. When Horatio had finally come into their lives it had been almost too late.

Now Kyle had a record, he had served jail time and had almost been killed for being the lieutenant's son. He was jaded by the experience and Horatio knew Kyle resented him for coming along so late into his life, too late to prevent Kyle's crime wave and just in time to make him a target in jail when he paid the price for his crimes.

Sandy blonde like his mother but with his father's blue eyes, Kyle was meant to be the best of Julia and Horatio but sometimes he was also the worst of them, demonstrating his father's temper and mother's emotional instabilities. It made Horatio all the wearier of telling him of his engagement.

"Dad is something wrong?" Kyle pried.

Horatio offered him a small smile of reassurance. "No son."

It still felt unusual to hear 'dad' but Horatio found himself treasuring the familiarity more and more, knowing he was still earning the right to that title and was lucky Kyle had bestowed it on him.

"Then what is it?" Kyle queried. He gestured to their surroundings. "This is a fancy place for a weekday dinner," he remarked.

Horatio nodded. "Well it's been a while."

"Yeah," Kyle muttered as irritation crossed his stare with that comment.

Horatio nodded again. "You're right, I have something to tell you," he confessed. "Kyle, I'm engaged."

Horatio was dismayed at the emotions that flew across his son's face- surprise, confusion and then annoyance, anger, resentment and perhaps envy too.

"To that spacey beach girl?" Kyle grumbled. "Isn't she like, half your age?"

Horatio frowned at the question and the implication that came with it. "No," he retorted bluntly. "She is twelve years younger."

Kyle turned away and shrugged. "Well she doesn't dress her age or act it."

"Son you don't know her," Horatio reminded him, "you've barely met her but I would like that to change."

"Why? It won't last, will it? Why even marry? Don't you already live with her?" Kyle continued to snipe as he stared to the right at nothing in particular.

The teenager folded his arms and scowled.

Horatio might have been amused by the childish display if it wasn't at his expense.

"Cassie is a good person Kyle," he insisted, "and she makes me very happy. Life is short, I don't want to waste anymore of it missing out."

Kyle turned an ugly frown on his father. "She has all those scars and she's odd. She's probably only with you for money or something."

Horatio gave a bitter chuckle at this. "Do you really think that? You saw the media, you know what she went through when she got those scars, it was not of her own making. She works hard you know, she's not greedy or lazy or any other insult your mother may have used," he added pointedly with a narrowed stare.

Kyle looked surprised and for a brief moment his wide expression showed that Horatio had caught him out before he banished it for another scowl.

"I think she's strange," Kyle insisted.

"Well, would you give her a chance for me?" Horatio pleaded.

Kyle shrugged again and his moody stare was cast out to nothingness once more. "You're engaged already, bit late isn't it? Why is it always like that with you?"

Horatio let the sigh out this time. "Son I don't mean it to be. I have tried to introduce you properly before this but you haven't helped with that. Your mother and you have made this difficult and, I admit, things have been difficult on our end too. Cassie has had some problems with her headaches and a few setbacks in her ability to socialise."

"Nutcase," Kyle muttered cruelly.

"Kyle considering all she has been through she's done remarkably well," Horatio defended as he gave his son a look of scorn.

Horatio's anger was starting to grow, first Eric, now Kyle, why in the hell did people who were close to him not want him happy? Why did they same to hate a woman he loved? Or rather, hate what she represented.

The ambience of the restaurant was lost to them now. Neither paid any heed to the scents of food, the jovial chat of the other diners, or the background music played at a suitable level to be pleasant white noise rather than an overpowering racket. For them the mood was lost and they weren't getting it back.

"Mom went through worse," Kyle argued, "and she doesn't have a problem socialising."

Whilst Horatio wanted to argue with that he knew it wasn't worth it.

"Can we go now?" Kyle grumbled. "It's a week night, I've work tomorrow."

"Right." Horatio nodded as he waved a hand for the bill. "Kyle, give Cassie a chance for me, please."

Kyle stared over at his father with a hot hostility but he let it simmer a little as he nodded angrily to his left. "I'll try," he said reluctantly.

Horatio smiled. "That's all I ask."


	8. Chapter 8- Family Life

Rick answered the front door hastily. He had rushed from the back patio at the sound of the bell, leaving Annabelle there with Natalia to continue enjoying the fresh air of a warm early evening. He opened the door to greet Cassandra, Horatio and Marissa.

Cassandra's face immediately filled with mirth as laughter escaped her before she could help it. "Good grief Rick you are spectacular looking," she taunted.

Horatio was quiet as he took in the man and felt an unexpected moment of unsettledness.

Rick frowned down at his sister before swiping off the sunglasses that had caused her laughter. They were geometric, black tinted with silver frames and by themselves probably a decent pair but on Rick they were entirely ill-suited. It was hard to say why, if it was the shape, the frame, or the tint, or possibly all three.

"I...didn't know you wore sunglasses," Horatio said softly.

It was such an odd statement it drew both Cassandra and Rick's curious stares his way.

Cassandra giggled again as she spied the uneasiness in her fiance's blue eyes.

"What, thought you were the only one?" Rick quipped sardonically. "It is sunny outside, that is what sunglasses are for," he snapped.

Rick stepped back from the doorway at last and gestured them in. "Nat and Annabelle are out back, go say hi," he suggested.

Marissa stepped in first, moving at a skip as she clutched her doll Becky in both her hands. As she moved her dark plaits bounced up and down behind her back.

"Were you out somewhere?" Rick pried as he watched his young niece as she hastened for the patio.

"No," Cassandra murmured.

"Why did you plait Mari's hair then?" he queried in puzzlement.

Cassandra shook her head with a grin. "Sometimes girls just like to style their hair," she mused.

Rick glanced to Horatio for confirmation but the redhead was still staring at the sunglasses in Rick's hand as if they were dangerous.

Cassandra stepped into the house and gave a dramatic twirl so she was facing her brother once more as she moved into the hallway. "Hey Rick where's my star for getting Marissa to the hospital and school, two days in a row, and now here unscathed?" she queried bitingly. Her tone shifted from mocking to accusing as she frowned at him. "Or are you going to give Horatio all the credit because he happened to drive here?"

Rick folded his arms as he frowned down at his sister. "What crawled up your ass?" he demanded.

Cassandra shrugged. "Just haven't heard that apology yet since I didn't meet your expectations of failing to make a simple appointment with Mari," she grumbled.

The blonde turned and headed after Marissa, into the kitchen which led to the patio.

Rick pushed a hand through his greying hair before looking to the redhead for an explanation.

Horatio closed the door behind him. "She's had a couple of hard days at work," he explained wearily. "And Mr Wolfe met her yesterday and thought her bad mood was because of Eric's disagreeable reaction to our engagement so she knows about that now," he confessed.

Horatio had seen Ryan this morning and been greeted with umpteen apologies from the young CSI agent for his blunder. Mad as the redhead had been he had kept it from his face and assured Ryan that it wasn't his fault because it wasn't. Horatio knew he should have resolved things with Eric better and been more public about his engagement. He knew Cassandra wasn't just mad because of Eric's reaction but because it had then become clear that Horatio wasn't exactly going public with his news.

Rick's hand slipped down his cheek slowly before he dropped it by his side. "Well damn Horatio do you think you could have made that messier?" he quipped sardonically.

Horatio kept his expression calm but inside he winced at the accusation. "I still haven't heard what happened, just that Eric is off the Bracker case."

"He called my sister a tramp and implied she was a gold digger," Rick snarled, "so I tried to punch him but Frank got in my way." Rick gave a bitter smile at this. "Tobias got a little closer but Detective Carson intervened."

Horatio raised his eyebrows slightly, noting how Rick called Tobias by his first name. Apparently trying to punch Eric had moved him up in Rick's world. Horatio just felt annoyed at the whole affair, knowing if he had only been more tactful with Eric it might not have led to this. He wondered at Tobias' hotheaded reaction as well, it took passion to lead to violence and Horatio didn't like the idea of Tobias having such a heated urge to defend his ex-girlfriend.

"I'm sorry Rick," he said quietly. "I told Eric the news, he didn't take well and he didn't handle it well with you."

Rick pointed at Horatio with one hand, waving his sunglasses as he did. "Cassie isn't having this screwed up for her," he said firmly. "She's had a lifetime of crap and you know it and if she was looking to marry for money I wouldn't let her settle for you," he added in a show of dark humour.

Horatio bristled slightly at this. "Rick I love her and she doesn't deserve this, I know. I'll talk to Eric again," he assured.

Rick nodded. "He has serious issues with me," he murmured, "which is fine, I don't care, he can hate me until the end of time but he can't keep putting that on her. Anyway, what happened at her work?"

Horatio didn't relish the change of subject. Cassandra's work was just as problematic as Eric.

"People were staring at her scars," the redhead explained quietly, "and she had to work in that shark tower. She says her boss got her shifts mixed up with someone else's."

Rick's frown deepened. "She never seems to find the right job," he complained.

"She likes this one," Horatio retorted.

"I'm not sure, she likes the animals sure but the people leave a lot to be desired." Rick suppressed a sigh. "Let's go see Natalia and Annabelle," he suggested.

Horatio nodded. He stepped through the hall towards the kitchen, leaving Rick to reset the alarm on the front door.

Outside the sun was shining and Cassandra had been quick to join Natalia sitting on a deckchair attempting to soak up the last of the early evening rays. Annabelle, who had been sitting nearby reading a book, was now looking at Marissa's plaits with an odd fascination.

Cassandra caught the young blonde staring and grinned. "Would you like your hair plaited Annabelle?" she offered.

Annabelle glanced over her shoulder suddenly with a startled look. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at Cassandra dumbfounded. The young girl never really knew how to address the woman despite Cassandra's insistence that Annabelle call her Cassie like everyone else. Truthfully she didn't really know how to address Rick or Natalia either.

Cassandra gave her a warm grin as she leaned forward in her chair. "I could do it for you now if you want," she said.

"Why?" Marissa piped up rudely.

Marissa had seated herself on the patio away from Annabelle, Becky in her lap as she pointed out flowers to the doll. Marissa had turned seven last month and Rick was starting to worry that she was lingering in a babyish phase with Becky but he had yet to voice it to the girl out of fear of upsetting her.

"Because she might like it," Cassandra retorted, unfazed by her niece's sullen tone. "You like yours, don't you?"

"Yes," Marissa replied, "but her hair is different to mine," she added quickly.

Natalia pursued her lips slightly and exchanged a glance with Cassandra.

"Yes Mari so her plaits will be different."

"It's okay," Annabelle mumbled to her lap.

"Why don't you let me try hmm?" Cassandra suggested. "I'll brush it out first, see what you think. You don't like it, we'll stop."

"She doesn't want it," Marissa pouted.

"Mari let Annabelle answer for herself," Rick remarked as he stepped out to the patio. He put his sunglasses back on and pointedly ignored Cassandra's mocking snort.

Natalia leaned across the table and nudged Cassandra. She pointed over to Rick when the blonde turned to her. "They don't suit him do they?" Natalia quipped quietly to Cassandra.

Cassandra smirked. "Midlife crisis pending I'd say," she teased loudly.

"That happened when you moved in," Rick grumbled.

Rick was focused on Marissa and Annabelle. He knew Marissa's budding jealousy had always been an inevitability. They were close than age with less than two years between them and both girls, a sibling rivalry was always a potential but he considered that it was deeper than that. The pair were both orphans as well after all. He understood that Marissa was probably defensive of keeping her Auntie Cassie to herself and since she was only seven it was a little difficult to try and explain to her that Cassandra could show Annabelle attention without losing her devotion for Marissa.

Rick's thoughts shifted to memories of an unbalanced childhood with Marissa's mother Gillian. Marissa was always prying into her mother's life with her aunt and uncle, always wondering why Rick and Cassandra were reluctant to discuss it and querying every obvious difference she noted between their youth and her mother's. The homicide lieutenant wondered if she was worried something similar might happen to her and Annabelle. Could her young thoughts be that detailed?

"I want to ask Kara Watkins' family if they know of Benjamin Bracker," Horatio addressed Rick calmly, "to see if there is a possibility that Kara and Benjamin were acquainted."

The redhead remained standing just as Rick was only he lingered in the shade of the balcony by the door as if ready to leave. He purposely left it unsaid that he had actually intended for Eric to explore the possibility of Kara and Benjamin being acquainted until Eric had been removed from the case.

Rick folded his arms and nodded seriously. His brown eyes shone with annoyance as he was aggrieved at not considering that possibility yet himself.

"I was going to arrange visiting there anyway," Rick said, almost defensively, "to find out more about Kara.

Cassandra stood up, her bracelets and ankles chiming unanimously as she did. "I'm going to get a brush," she announced. "Maybe you two could talk about something other than work," she suggested as she frowned from one man to the other. "I mean surely there's something else that could be occupying your attention," she added pointedly.

The blonde slipped past Horatio back into the house.

Natalia leaned forward slightly to watch her go. Once she was out of earshot, Natalia turned her warm brown stare up to Horatio. There was a sympathy to her face but also some mild frustration. "I know it didn't go well with Eric," Natalia got straight to the point, "but I want to have a celebration for Cassie. This is big news you know and good news and you two are acting like it's nothing," she scolded. "Cassie deserves a nice night out to have a few drinks and celebrate, don't you think?"

Horatio was surprised to feel a slight intimidation from Natalia's questioning gaze. He realised it probably stemmed from his guilt over how he had dealt with things with Eric and, to an extent, Kyle. He nodded back calmly to Natalia.

"I mean you are telling people, right?" Natalia queried dubiously.

Horatio felt the accusation of Rick's burning brown stare upon him and knew there was only one answer he could give to keep the peace.

"Of course," Horatio assured.

Cassandra returned triumphantly with a soft, cream bristled brush in hand. If she was aware of the sudden silence that fell she did not comment upon it. The blonde seated herself cross legged on the granite patio behind Annabelle.

"Alright, I'll start brushing it and we can see how it goes," Cassandra offered. "You tell me if you don't like it."

She placed into her lap a handful of bobbles and ribbons before reaching to pull Annabelle's hair over her shoulders.

Rick watched Marissa keenly, waiting for reaction. The young girl was silent as she stared down at Becky deliberately.

"How was the doctor's Mari?" Rick queried.

Cassandra let out a snort at this. "That's a good topic for her," she muttered.

Rick folded his arms and scowled down at his sister. "I'm only asking," he retorted defensively.

"She said I had to take different tablets," Marissa murmured quietly. "She said I have to be careful, she always says that." Marissa looked up at Rick sorrowfully. "Is it ever going to be different?"

Rick tried to banish his scowl and look positive for the girl but it was a question he didn't have the answer to.

"Of course," Cassandra retorted brightly as she brushed Annabelle's hair into a shine. "At any rate Mari it's alright to have something, I have my headaches and my poor eyesight."

"I want to go on the slides at the pool," Marissa complained as she frowned back at Becky.

"You can," Cassandra answered blithely.

"Not all of them," Marissa retorted moodily.

"Well neither can I," Natalia commented with a smile. "Some of them a little too much for me."

Rick glanced at her curiously. "Too much for you?" he quipped teasingly.

"Things get a little um loosened," Natalia retorted vaguely. Her cheeks darkened slightly as she suddenly became aware of her boss' stare upon her.

Cassandra grinned at this. "Me too but hey, it's how God intended us," she remarked chirpily.

Rick's teasing smirk suddenly vanished as he turned a scolding stare on the blonde. "Cassie what the hell," he snapped.

Cassandra shrugged. "Not my fault, blame the jets on those slides or whoever designed bikini straps to be so skimpy."

"You don't have to buy them skimpy!" Rick yelled with a wild wave of his hands. He turned to Horatio with a glare.

The redhead fought to keep his expression neutral but he didn't quite banish the amusement in his cerulean eyes quick enough.

"You're not going to comment on the fact that your fiancee flashes people when on water slides?" Rick quipped crossly. "Do I have to remind you the aquarium she works at is joined to a water park?"

Cassandra rolled her eyes whilst Natalia raised her hand to stifle a giggle.

"It's not like my job is flashing people at the water park," Cassandra murmured. "Geez Rick calm down, it's only happened like three, four times and not at that place."

"Could we change the topic please?" Horatio queried calmly before Rick could start yelling again.

"Hey Annabelle, do you like swimming?" Cassandra pried.

Annabelle shook her head before realising her error as she felt her hair tightening slightly in Cassandra's hand with the gesture. "No," she answered quietly. "The water is cold."

"It's not," Marissa retaliated quickly.

"It can be," Cassandra commented neutrally. "So what do you like Annabelle?" she pried.

The girl glanced to her lap and fidgeted with her fingers before her stare darted up to look across the garden.

"Dancing," she answered quietly. "Daddy took me to ballet lessons."

"Oh that sounds fun," Cassandra enthused. "I always wanted to do ballet when I was young."

Rick, who had looked a little guilty at Annabelle's reply, shook his head at Cassandra's retort. "I remember that phase, you used to run about my room with ribbons asking me to watch you dance to the swan song."

"Did you get lessons?" Annabelle asked.

Cassandra stiffened a little, her hand hesitating over the plait she had started in the young girl's hair. "No honey," she answered quietly. "So what level were you at?" she queried quickly. "Did you get any prizes?"

Horatio watched Cassandra continue to engage the young girl with ease. He was proud at Cassandra for efforts and admired how it seemed to come to her effortlessly. Accepting that they were staying outside for a while, he took a seat at the same table as Natalia.

"A few," Annabelle answered, still quiet.

"Well that's good," Cassandra praised.

Cassandra gave the girl one large plait at the back with several ribbons weaved through it. Satisfied with her work, she gave a proud smile before standing up and heading over to Horatio.

"We should go," Horatio advised.

Cassandra nodded. "Yep, see you guys soon."

Natalia rose from the table the same time as Horatio. "Well it's always good to see you," she said sincerely. "I'll walk you to the door, give Rick some time with his sunglasses," she joked.

Rick shook his head as he made a point of putting his shades back on. "Bye," he remarked.

"He means goodbye and thank you so much for taking care of Marissa and taking her to the doctor's," Natalia corrected pointedly.

Cassandra grinned at this. "Anytime. We'll do ice-cream soon, maybe have a girls day hmm? Mari, Annabelle, you Natalia and me?"

Natalia nodded at this. "I'd like that."

Natalia walked the pair to the door and let them out. She closed the door after waving them off, locked it and set the alarm before retreating to the garden.

Seeing Rick now seated, Natalia slipped onto his lap, smiling at him as she wrapped her arms about his shoulders.

"Take those ghastly things off," she ordered before kissing him lightly on the mouth.


	9. Chapter 9- Crime with a Bang

_I changed the fic's title The Miami Moonlight Murderer had some nice alliteration but it doesn't make much sense in the fic._

* * *

Senator Watkins was running late. This annoyed Rick more than Horatio but that wasn't surprising. The pair had scheduled and rescheduled their meeting with the man, the time and the location ever changing as the senator's various assistants tried to fit the police in. It served to lower both Rick and Horatio's opinions of the man but as their questions were at the moment out of curiosity and not obligatory, they could not force the senator's hand.

It was now just after four in the afternoon and they were in the heart of Miami pulling up to a tall row of glittering tower blocks where Senator Watkins' office away from the office dwelled. Why the senator had suddenly decided he didn't want the lieutenants in his house they didn't know. It was irritating considering they would've liked to have questioned his wife and son too. The idea was to get a background on Kara and query her potential relationship with Benjamin, by meeting with only the senator they would be getting limited answers. Horatio reasoned that something was better than nothing but Rick felt their time had already been wasted with constant time and location changes today.

Senator or not, for someone who had just lost his daughter in the form of a horrific murder he didn't seem to be slowing in his work role. When one would have expected him to take time to be in Miami with his family he instead seemed to be making every effort to throw himself into his role at Washington.

After dealing with their other work throughout the day, Horatio and Rick had ended up sharing a car to the senator's Miami base. There had been a brief bicker between the pair over who was driving before Rick had finally relented and let Horatio drive. Rick had been vocal about the hummer being over the top but even he appreciated the room within it.

They got out of the car to a typical sunny Miami afternoon and headed up to the entrance of the building. A modern tower block that glittered with polished mirror images of the sun, it was where Senator Watkins' had run his campaign from. The senator kept the office space simply because he could not because he needed it.

Rick tapped at the gold shield fastened to his belt as he met the curious gaze of the security guard. Rick bore a frown and a weary stare in his dark brown eyes that suggested explaining his presence to the guard was too much effort on his part.

The guard was middle aged, tall with a wide chest and muscular arms. He wore a pair of sunglasses out of necessity as he stood facing the sun and was dressed in a bland brown uniform that suggested he was on hire from an agency rather than hired directly by the residents of the building he guarded..

"Afternoon," Horatio greeted politely. "We're here to see Senator Watkins."

The guard nodded. "Can I see some identification?" he quipped.

Rick frowned even as he reached for his wallet and presented his I.D.

Horatio was a little more courteous as he pulled out his own and gave the guard a little more time to read it than Rick did before he put it away.

The guard nodded again. "Go ahead in."

"Thanks," Rick grumbled sardonically.

"Fourth floor," the guard added. His tone was dull, matching his bland expression.

Horatio wondered briefly if the man had a practised poker face or was perfectly disinterested in him and Rick.

"Thanks," Horatio said politely.

The lieutenants headed into the building where they met another security guard and the expected metal detector. Rick only just resisted rolling his eyes, accepting that it was protocol. The entire building was government owned although the homicide lieutenant wasn't too sure who or what was on the floors other than the fourth.

The cops surrendered their weapons for a brief moment of vulnerability before they went through the metal detector briskly. Government security always acted like they trumped regular cops, it was an attitude that frequently got on Rick's nerves given that they were all government employees in the end, it was just that some were closer to Washington than others.

Security check done, Rick and Horatio headed through to the lobby. It was spacious and flooded with light from a large set of heavy windows that looked like they were bullet proof. There was the standard set of modern looking chairs for waiting in accompanied by a glass and white wooden coffee table, a water cooler and a few lively looking potted plants. There was also the large, curved, white desk where a male receptionist sat on duty.

Horatio explained their presence to the receptionist briefly before they were directed on to the elevators.

They were escorted up in the elevator by a chirpy assistant who seemed more suitable for being a bellboy in a hotel. The elevator itself had bronze mirror walls, which created an unsettling effect of endless reflections, and bored them with soft classical music.

At the fourth floor another guard greeted them before they were finally permitted entry to the senator's almost abandoned office space. It was there that the final staff member greeted them in a small waiting area.

Rick felt an odd jolt in his chest as a woman stepped through a heavy set blue door to greet them. He could not hide the shock from his face as his dark eyes roamed up and down her in disbelief.

The woman's gaze was down on a handful of forms in her right arm as she flipped through their headings with her left hand.

"Good afternoon," she greeted coolly to her paperwork, "Lieutenant Caine wasn't it?"

"And Lieutenant Stetler," Horatio informed her helpfully when Rick failed to add the correction.

Horatio was looking to Rick out of the corner of his eye, wondering at the shock on the man's face.

The woman froze up at the name, halting as she turned her head up sharply at the same time. Shock filled her face as her vibrant, warm, hazel eyes fixed upon Rick.

"I...I didn't know," she said quietly. Her arm dropped by her side to cradle the notes in her hand and wrist.

"Me either," Rick muttered.

"Who are you ma'am and where is the senator?" Horatio pried.

The redhead felt the sudden shift in the atmosphere as a tension began to escalate in the waiting room. He couldn't tell what emotions were between Rick and this as yet unknown woman save for shock. He didn't think it was a glad shock or a welcome reunion between them but he couldn't outright assume it was bad either.

"Catorina Sanchez," she answered automatically. Although her response was for Horatio her stare remained fixed upon Rick. "The senator is on his way," she explained. "I was asked to meet you here in the meantime, a somewhat vague message from his aide," she added calmly with only a hint of annoyance, "I guess he forgot to say you were both coming."

Horatio resisted the urge to nod, it was pointless when the woman wasn't really paying him much attention.

"Well things did change a lot today," he murmured quietly.

"I've seen you a lot on the television Rick, how've you been?" the woman queried politely.

Rick bristled slightly. His right hand was already at the knot of his tie working it loose and wrinkling up the silver dollar coins patterning it. He hated the tie, it was cheesy as hell but Annabelle had helped Natalia pick it out for him today apparently so he had to comply with wearing it.

"Fine," Rick responded bluntly. "And you?"

"Good."

The woman glanced about her awkwardly before stepping forward to the ornamental coffee table of stones trapped beneath glass and depositing her paperwork there. She took a moment longer than necessary to stare down at the paperwork as she unnecessarily shuffled it into place with her perfectly manicured, polished pink nails. When she rose, she made herself look from Rick to Horatio.

The CSI lieutenant had been studying her discreetly as he wondered at who she was to Rick. He knew he'd heard the name Catorina before but it wasn't exactly uncommon and he couldn't be sure he had heard it in connection to Rick. She was a lovely woman somewhere in her forties he supposed. Her face was a naturally appealing burnished beige with her curly, dyed brunette and honey streaked locks teased up above it into a flattering bun. Nothing about her was familiar to Horatio, she was in a similar age group to himself and Rick, give or take a few years and wrinkles, but that was the only connection he could grasp at between her and Rick for now.

"Please," she said suddenly with a forced smile, "take a seat, the senator really won't be much longer."

She gestured to the comfortable looking couch before the coffee table with one hand before retreating to the door she had come from. With her back to them, she hurried to key in the pin code, muttering a curse when it declined her once before granting her escape.

When she was gone Rick all but collapsed to the couch. He pushed his hands up through his scalp and shook his head wearily.

"Rick, how do you know Ms Sanchez?" Horatio pried softly. He figured it was better getting straight to the point.

"We were married," Rick grumbled before he lowered his hands to rest on his thighs. He dug his nails into his black trousers and wrinkled them. "Years ago, I was twenty-two, it lasted all of five years, longer than my first marriage mind," he added bitterly.

Suddenly all the pieces came together for Horatio. It was a revelation Cassandra had told him, Rick's second marriage had been love at first sight, ruined abruptly thanks to Balthasar Garrett in a roundabout way. Balthasar had seen Cassandra in her dancing job when she was just twenty-one, he had made her dance for him and terrorised her in the effort. Scared, she had gone sobbing to Rick after and he had headed to Balthasar in a blind rage. The problem was Balthasar, a former boxer, was ready for his angry stepson, in fact probably expecting him, and had beaten him to the point of him being hospitalised. The stress of it all had caused Rick's then wife, Catorina, to miscarry according to Cassandra. Worse, after she had divorced Rick she had sued for the trauma, a lawsuit Balthasar had passed on to Rick. It was a payment Rick had been keeping up until only very recently when just over a year ago Horatio had gotten a lawyer to help Rick get the payments ended.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Horatio queried calmly.

Rick frowned up at him. He got it, they were on the job, Rick couldn't get personal over this and if their roles had been reversed Rick probably would have been even blunter about it but knowing that didn't stop him being pissed at Horatio anyway.

"No," Rick responded bluntly.

Horatio let a silence fill the room but after ten minutes it became uncomfortable. Ten minutes more and the senator finally arrived.

Senator Tom Watkins entered the room hastily, alone and looking impatient.

Catorina appeared as if on cue, her brown stare solely for the senator. She was turned towards him, calm although worry started to fill her gaze at the senator's agitated state.

"Senator, can I get you anything?" she quipped.

He glanced over to her and shook his head. "No, thanks Catorina," he retorted warmly. His pale blue gaze drifted over to the lieutenants. "Gentlemen, I'm sure Catorina has already asked but do you need anything?"

"No, thanks," Horatio answered for them.

Tom nodded and glanced back to Catorina. "Thanks for being here to help," he said in a quiet gratitude. "You can wait next door, I'll let you know when we're done."

She nodded back briskly as she held the senator's gaze. A fleeting gaze passed her glossed lips before she departed without a word to the lieutenants.

Horatio glanced over at Rick and wasn't surprised to see the man squeezing at the knot of his tie with his right hand. He nudged him lightly with his left hand causing the man to tense up before his hand dropped away from the tie.

The senator occupied the single couch to the left of the two seater they shared, putting him closest to Rick. He crossed one leg over the over, rested his hands on the arms of the chair and looked at the lieutenants with exasperation.

"Well, lieutenants, what is it I can help you with?" he queried.

"Senator there have been a few developments," Horatio explained. "As we informed and as the press have now learned, the blood on Kara was not hers. It belonged to Benjamin Bracker, a teenager who was presumed-"

Tom held up a hand in protest with an agitated look. "I know that name," he growled out. "Murdered five years ago by his brother. Why and how in the hell would his blood be on my daughter?"

Horatio, still calm despite the interruption, answered with a cool calm, "we don't know, that's what we are trying to find out."

"Your daughter was the same age as Benjamin and at his school," Rick pointed out bluntly, "were they acquainted?"

Tom bristled at the question as his mouth twisted up in a snarl. "He was a bad kid, family might've had money but they had no class."

"That doesn't answer the question," Rick retorted as he gave the senator a level stare.

Tom shrugged. "I suppose not. I asked her not to but Kara liked pushing boundaries even then. There was a group of them, Kara, Ben, three or four others, thick as thieves all through school until Benjamin's family had that massacre."

"Did you know Benjamin's family at all?" Horatio queried curiously.

Tom's frosty stare was back on the redhead. "New money not old, Hunter had a small business and it grew and he was good in the stock market, I think he'd something to do with horses, I forget what. We weren't in the same circles," he added flatly.

Rick nodded at this, thinking of his stepfather Balthasar Garrett, he'd been old money too, born into wealth and selfishness but then he'd lost it all and bought his way back in drugs trading, a crime that had gotten him killed and hadn't been exposed until his death. Senator Watkin's same snobby attitude was making Rick rapidly lose sympathy for him.

"Could we have the names of Kara and Benjamin's friends?" Rick asked.

Tom pulled a face of irritation. "Really? Lieutenant...Stender was it?"

"Stetler," Rick corrected quickly, only just keeping the ire from his voice.

"Right, this was over five years ago, I don't remember them, I couldn't even name all of Kara's friends now."

"Would anyone else in the family remember?" Horatio queried calmly.

"I doubt it," the senator murmured.

"Senator, we're trying to find out who murdered your daughter, you need to start helping us with our questions," Rick said bluntly.

Tom frowned over at the man but he didn't reply. He considered the statement as his cold gaze darted between the pair. "My wife is...not in a state for questions," he explained awkwardly. "Kara's death has hit her hard."

"We can be discrete," Horatio offered. He was suspicious of the senator's real meaning.

The very few times they had met Lydia Watkins she had always been under some sort of influence, a cocktail of medication and alcohol judging from the odour her perfumes couldn't cover, the slur of words in a Cajun accent and a stare with a filmy blur to it. Yet she wore her addiction in such a fashion, still standing tall as she stumbled a little and always with an elegant move to her hips as she crossed from one area to another, that there was a suggestion that her influences were not newly acquired in her grief. A grief that seemed put on better when she was in public, always ready with her black sun hat and designer sunglasses to express her mourning.

Tom stared back at Horatio curiously, uncertain of the redhead's meaning.

"Senator for the sake of your daughter we have to ask these questions, she was found with Benjamin Bracker's blood on her five years after his presumed death and you have confirmed for us that they were friends," Horatio summarised. "It is unlikely to be a coincidence and we need to know more. If there's a chance your wife can better recall these friends then we should speak with her. The better we know Kara, the better we might learn who killed her."

Tom raised a hand to his brow as he turned his gaze away from the lieutenants and to the reception space.

"So it wasn't just some random psychopath in the night then," he grumbled.

"It's unlikely," Horatio answered.

Tom lowered his hand and turned his stare upon Rick. His gaze lingered on the man's wrinkled tie for a few seconds, turning scornful as he took in the untidy state of it.

Rick let his ire fill his dark gaze as he picked up on the man's dismissive opinion of him. He wasn't impressed, Horatio wasn't even wearing a tie so why was Rick getting the side-eye?

"Lieutenant Stetler have you no leads at all?" Tom queried.

"No," Rick answered bluntly, "and if we don't learn more about Kara we might never."

Tom's gaze narrowed. "Alright, I take your meaning. There's probably photos in her room. Some remnants of high school. You know, after that boy's murder she didn't talk about those friends much," Tom added defensively, "she was trying to distance herself from the pain and the violence."

Rick nodded empathetically. "It's hard to forget if someone keeps reminding you," he said with an icy calm.

Tom glanced at the expensive looking gold watch on his wrist. "Can we reschedule?" he queried. "At my house and you can speak with my family about Ben and Kara, and my staff too if you think it will help. Catorina has been with me for six years," he said with a fond smile, "she might even remember him. It would've been during the campaign," he recalled wistfully as he uncrossed his legs, "Kara would've brought her friends to the house while I was in the middle of speech writing, such a distraction."

Sorrow crossed the senator's face as he shook it and touched his brow again. "I would welcome such silly distractions now, she was a rebel but aren't all kids at that age." His stare was on Rick again. "You said you'd kids didn't you lieutenant? Girls?"

"Two," Rick answered, "I'm their guardian, my niece Marissa and Annabelle, I'm fostering her."

Tom nodded sombrely as he leaned forward, putting himself closer to Rick. "Keep them close lieutenant because in a blink they're suddenly just gone."

He sighed and stood up, head bowed to the floor as he studied it silently.

Horatio and Rick stood as well.

"Thank you for your time," Horatio said, although he only half meant it. The senator had largely wasted their time.

"Yes, I'll get Catorina," Tom murmured, "she will reschedule us."

Tom headed for the door Catorina had disappeared through. He keyed in the code, opened it and called for her.

Catorina appeared quickly, suggesting she had always just been waiting for his call rather than actually working.

"Senator?" she queried.

Tom gestured to Horatio and Rick with one hand. "Catorina I need to meet with these two again but at my house, with my wife, can you set it up? Oh and they might have questions for you too and the other staff members."

Catorina couldn't hide the surprise from her face at the suggestion. "Questions?"

Tom nodded. "About Kara and her friends." His voice was quiet and full of woe and he looked tired as he stood between Catorina and the men, unable to focus on either.

Catorina's stare jumped to Rick, both curious and suspicious. "Right, well I'll get your diary and set it up then," she offered.

* * *

Out in the everglades Natalia began to wonder sardonically if Miami even existed anymore. Here was Florida's idea of wilderness- humid air, thick with the damp odour of swap and beneath you was a substance not quite solid nor liquid, an earth that could suddenly betray you as it gave way to dark waters that held all sorts of unseen wonders and horrors. The long grass made it a fond place for predators both animal and human alike. It was also a great setting for many rundown huts of illegal doings. It wasn't uncommon to hear reports of mild bangs in the night and the occasional alcohol sullied whiff of smoke as a distillery blew itself to kingdom come. Ryan liked to joke that a moonshiner always took themselves out of business before the cops had to lift a finger.

Today Ryan and Natalia were searching the scene of a drugs deal gone wrong. At first they had been leaning towards meth lab with the usual presence of equipment gear that was better suited in a chemistry lab than in the everglades but the telltale tablets weren't there. There were pills for sure but they were off a pink tint and imprinted with horns, drugs definitely but not meth. It was a product neither Ryan nor Natalia could identify.

The pair moved the building a room at a time, checking it slowly and carefully as they waited impatiently for the narcotics team. Ryan and Natalia had been in the area when the call had come, releasing the body of an old woman to the M.E. It had seemed like a case of accidental death, the woman had lived alone on the edge of the glades and they'd found her in her house, rusting gun in one hand, cloth in the other. The responding officer had wagered suicide but the cloth suggested an accidental discharge whilst cleaning the gun.

Ryan had gotten an odd chill with their conclusion. It had made him think of the suddenly frequently mentioned Tim Speedle, his predecessor who had died from a gunshot after being unable to return fire because his own gun wasn't cleaned properly. Eric spoke highly of Tim but Calleigh had advised Ryan and Natalia privately that Tim had had his flaws and Eric was simply blinded with fond remembrance and an unwillingness to say anything bad about a man he had been very close with. She mentioned how Eric and Tim had hung out outside of work as well and how Eric hadn't just lost a colleague but a dear friend as well.

Ryan could understand why Eric was on edge with the memory of Tim being dredged up and sullied. Coupling that with news of Horatio's engagement to Rick's sister of all people and it was easy to see how Eric had lost his temper. Still, whilst Ryan could understand it he could not approve it. Cassandra definitely didn't deserve the insults Eric had levied at her and Rick didn't deserve the unending anger either. Well, alright, Rick had certainly earned it on some level but he had made amends for it too.

Ryan was already considering the only reasonable thing to do. Invite Eric out for a beer and get it all out there and remind him that whilst Ryan was friends with Rick he could still be Eric's friend too. This wasn't high school, no one had to pick sides.

Natalia paused as she heard an echo beneath her footstep. She glanced down at the wooden floorboards curiously and stepped down again with more force. She glanced to Ryan curiously.

"You hear that? Do you get many basements out here?" she quipped cheerfully.

Ryan grinned and shook his head. "Strange to renovate a shack," he mused. "Are we thinking more supply or cash?"

Natalia smiled back at him. "Only one way to find out."

The brunette glanced over to their fresh body. He appeared to be in his early thirties and had suffered three gunshots before dying- one through the right leg, one through the torso piercing a kidney and one straight through the chest. There were bullets littering a wide section of the room indicating a gun fight. The deceased had a large, black handgun in hand but judging from the spray in the walls his opponent had a semi, which offered a fast spray of bullets the handgun couldn't match.

They were still waiting for the M.E to arrive but the evidence suggested it was the bullets that had killed him.

It was hard to tell what the fight might have been over. There was no telltale bundle of ready to go drugs, just the unbagged product and no stack of cash to suggest a purchase. Probably the murderer had fled with it but strange to think they'd have left the rest behind.

Ryan figured the killer knew the gunshot had alerted someone, which it had, a tourist airboat which had had its fans off as tourists readied with the cameras to take quiet shots of alligators and crane. The tour guide had phoned it through but hadn't pursued the source, instead he had turned on the fans and high tailed it out of there with his tourists but not before given an accurate location for the responding officers.

"Two gun shootings in the glades in one day, aren't we lucky," Ryan remarked dryly as they searched for the trapdoor that would take them to the basement.

"Yep, an entire afternoon of swamp smell, it's been glorious," Natalia answered sardonically.

The woman crouched down beside a large, heavy looking chest and grinned. "Isn't it always where you last suspect," she remarked brightly. "The secret door beneath the heavy object."

She stood up and took a photograph of the chest and the floorboards around it where scratch marks indicated a hasty moving of the chest.

Ryan stepped up to it and inspected the lock, it was a numbered one.

"Let's move it," Natalia suggested, "and see what's down there."

Ryan was a little hesitant but he moved to help anyway.

The pair took a handle each with gloved hands and gave it a tug, it moved easier than they'd thought suggesting it had either recently been emptied or was for show.

"I'm thinking our killer worked here, took out the vic but took some time to grab a few things before leaving," Natalia theorised. "I mean the lock is on the chest but it's light, so they knew the code then."

"Maybe," Ryan retorted, a little vaguer.

The door was revealed, a single square panel of wood with a round handle to pull it up. Natalia tugged out her gun just in case.

"You lift," she ordered Ryan.

Ryan frowned over at her. "Maybe we should wait," he suggested tentatively, "or call the other two in." He nodded pointedly in the direction of the open door, just outside the shack the two responding officers lingered. As it was a humid day the body was already giving off an odour and neither officer wanted to subject themselves to it if they didn't have to.

"Oh come on Ryan," Natalia scorned him, "in this humidity our body is wilting and evidence is spoiling, let's not wait longer than we have to. At least down there it's bound to be cooler."

Ryan continued to frown but he complied anyway and reached for the handle. "On three. One, two, three."

Ryan pulled it up and Natalia aimed down with her gun. Seeing and hearing no one, she gave it a few seconds before heading down.

"Natalia wait," Ryan called as he dropped the open flap down and manoeuvred round it to follow.

"Ryan don't!" Natalia's voice was strained as she shouted.

Ryan detected the immediate unease in the woman's voice and it only determined him to follow but he knew that was foolish and hung back even as he readied his gun.

"Ryan we need to get out, now, he wired this place. Run!" Natalia called back hastily.

Ryan barely at time to take in her warning as he heard her feet fumbling on the wooden stairs as she tried to turn around. She was cursing as she tried to pick up speed.

Ryan knew he should run but he needed to see Natalia first. He was frozen at her words, almost in disbelief as it was hard to trust what he wasn't seeing. Wired up. The place was rigged.

Ryan glimpsed Natalia's shell shocked face and he finally turned to bellow a warning to the two officers waiting outside. The two he should have called in to help them inspect the basement. Now he was suddenly so glad they hadn't followed protocol and endangered two more.

Ryan was certain he fell the roar before he heard it. It was a violent shake beneath him and a rush of wild hot air about him. Suddenly he couldn't breathe and his movements were involuntarily as his body was thrown forward by a force he couldn't resist. His mind was a tumble as his body rolled through air and was struck with debris.

For a moment Ryan's senses were gone. The world was dark, everything hurt and a ringing overpowered him. He filled with confusion as his stomach rolled and his body continued to spin rapidly through air before a cold splash shocked his senses all over again. He was gasping, floundering for air as his lungs blazed at first with burning air and then choked back foul tasting water.

Natalia, three feet from Ryan, felt broken. She tried to breathe but her lungs shuddered in a painful refusal. She was screaming and she didn't even know it. She couldn't hear. There was only a loud, torturous ringing. Everything ached and she could smell burning in the air. Her eyes rolled up but there was only darkness- a thick, heavy smoke poisoned with destroyed chemicals. How far had the sound carried? How far had the blast swept them?

There had been just one brief glimpse of the basement. Stacks of rotting notes and abandoned chemicals and that terrible, telltale flashing of numbers in red lights that promised disaster. She had known the signs and heard the faint beeping of a countdown from peace to chaos.

Natalia tried again to breathe but her body was unwilling, still subjected to shock. Soon that would fade and her agony would catch up with her. Her mind drifted to Rick, she knew he would yell at her, scold her for walking into a basement without backup, without a check from the officers first and he would be right damn it but she would never feel guilty for going first given what she had found down there. It was odd but she felt a strange happiness to hope that Rick would yell because if he did then it would mean it hadn't been that bad and she was okay and Ryan was okay. If Rick didn't yell things wouldn't be good and she wasn't sure how her conscience would deal with that one.

* * *

_I'm rewatching CSI Miami and I'm on Season 8 and IMHO Rick got done a dirty in the show. He had so much potential as a rival to Horatio but he just got shoved into the role of villain, first with the implication that he beat up Natalia, which never added up to me because she seemed too strong a character to put up with that and then it all just got dropped, surely Horatio wouldn't have let it go so easily, and then the diamond business. Honestly, I preferred him as the work rival not the villain because in some episodes he even tried to help Horatio and the others, like he really was just doing his job and unfortunately it did put him at odds with many cases he had a point, Tim didn't clean his gun and Eric was buying drugs, and then you had his character arc of being blinded with envy over Horatio getting a promotion he thought should've been his but again it didn't go anywhere._

_It's like they completely forgot about Rick's character for a few seasons and then brought him back just to be the villain for a few episodes before writing him out for good. I mean I get why people despise him, that's the point but I felt like he had a lot more potential. Which I guess sums up my reasoning for writing this trilogy._

_Also, I really haven't liked Eric much in these past few seasons and I think Jesse's another character that got dumped on, cancelled out of the show because Eric came back. Weird the way Eric was never killed off and the door got left open for him, don't get me wrong Eric fans, I get why people love him and are glad he came back but I just wasn't feeling it with him and I feel there could've been room for him and Jesse both. I mean I always liked Speedle and Ryan more than Eric too, for whatever reason I've just never clicked with Eric but hey, I gave him a good role in the last CSI trilogy I wrote so he's had his dues. Anyway, I will give him a little more potential here or I'll try to anyway since I don't want him becoming a one dimensional character in the fic._


	10. Chapter 10- A Long Day

Natalia braced herself for the onslaught as the door to her room opened and Rick came charging in. She had come to just as she was taken out of the ambulance and rushed into the hospital. There was no burn damage thankfully, something she had been surprised about given she could still feel the searing heat of the flames following after her. There was a scent of burning etched into her nostrils were smoking debris had gotten lodged. She knew that would take a while to shake.

Natalia had assessed her symptoms just a few minutes ago- she had nausea, an incredible headache, a persistent ringing in her ears and a terrible pain in her right ear from a damaged eardrum and all the superficial aches that came from being flung without warning across several feet and slamming down onto a semi-hard surface. She imagined the damage would be even worse if she had landed on concrete or tarmac instead of soft dirt. She was still waiting on the doctor's final prognosis but figured it would be- concussion, tinitis, bruising, swelling, burst eardrum, a sprained left ankle and cuts from the debris that had struck her.

Rick's dark eyes filled with shock before his mouth gave a tremble and he suddenly dropped in a crouch at her bedside.

Natalia was bewildered. She blinked at him in confusion as her mouth part slightly. She suddenly worried about Ryan. The doctor had assured her earlier that her co-worker was in much better form than she was but now she wondered seeing Rick so distraught.

"Rick is Ryan alright?" She yelled it at him anxiously as her heart began to hammer hard against her chest in a surge of panic.

Rick glanced up at her in a state of confusion and surprise. He nodded.

"Of course," Rick assured, "he met us in the corridor. He said you were alright but...shit seeing you like this. When I got the call..."

Natalia continued to look puzzled, all she could hear was the ringing. Even though she rationalised to herself that it would fade it was a little frightening now to see Rick's mouth move but not hear what he was saying. She was relieved when Rick nodded to confirm Ryan was alive but worried over his condition.

Natalia touched her hands to her ears.

"I can't hear, I've burst an eardrum," she explained, her voice still loud as she couldn't gage the volume of it.

Rick blinked as he tried to muster a calmer expression.

For a moment Rick had bounced back to the sadly all too common times he had been in a hospital, this hospital in fact. When he had entered the room and smelt the odd clinical cleanliness mixed with a faint odour of medications, he had been thrust back to some of his most vulnerable moments in life. It made him unstable, here was a place he had no control, not over his fate, his sister's, his niece's, or Natalia's.

Rick stretched out a hand to stroke the side of Natalia's face. He was careful to avoid the areas of budding green that promised bruises.

"Ryan is okay," he mouthed the words to her slowly. "I am not," he added pointedly as a nervous smile slipped out.

"Rick did you think it was worse?" Natalia queried.

Natalia realised what kind of call he must have gotten- 'there's been an explosion'. It wouldn't matter what words had followed that, Rick's imagination would have done the damage already.

Rick nodded wearily as he felt his adrenaline rush subside. Natalia was awake and talking to him, it was better than anything he had envisioned. The phone call to him hadn't even advised if she was critical or not, simply that there had been an explosion and she and Ryan were at hospital. Rick bowed his head as his chest rose and fall rapidly and he tried to ease his breathing.

Once, Rick had been a master over his emotions but the past few years had worn him down. Whilst he had overcome most of it, it still took him longer than it used to, to get his emotions in check.

Natalia leaned forward to slip her hand into his dark hair. She felt the tug of the I.V drip on her left arm and a jolt of pain in her ribs with the movement. She eased the fingers of her right hand through his greying sable hair gently in an effort to calm him.

"Rick don't you dare reach for that tie," she chided him as she saw his shoulders rise as he raised his hands slightly.

Rick let out a snort of amusement at this before he glanced up at her with a look of scorn in his dark eyes.

Natalia grinned down at him. "You know," she addressed him loudly, "when you were lying in hospital I gave you a kiss. A lot of kisses in fact." She tried to add some lightness to the tense mood.

Natalia had expected Rick to admonish her, scold her for rushing to danger, the fact that he hadn't made her wonder if it was possible that she looked worse than she felt and right now she felt like hell.

Rick nodded as he rose slightly so that he was level with her.

Natalia took him in, noting that his dark jacket was open and his tie was already almost undone and hanging loose halfway down his chest.

"Oh dear," she chided as she reached for it.

Rick's hands caught hers and held it in place.

Natalia looked up at him surprise as she felt the tremors running through his palms. His dark stare fell upon her again, both terrified and relieved. He pushed her hand back from his ruined tie and leaned down to kiss her.

Natalia closed her eyes as she welcomed his mouth upon hers. As she tasted his warmth tears began to trickle out of her eyes and she finally became aware of how scared she had been. She remembered the air burning before a roar deafened her and the world faded to black. Her last thoughts had been of Rick and the girls and her terror that she might have to leave them.

Natalia broke from him and turned her head sideways to press it against his crinkled blue shirt as she cried silently.

Rick embraced her lightly against him, conscious of her variety of bandages and plasters and the drip and heart monitor she was linked to. He was aware of his fast pacing breathing still and tried to calm it as he gave a heavy sigh.

Five minutes passed before there was a light knocking at the door.

Rick glanced over to it and called, "come in."

The door opened and Horatio entered calmly followed by a dishevelled but relieved looking Ryan. His face was marred with a few budding bruises and scrapes but he still managed a smile for Natalia as he stepped round from Horatio's shadow showing that his left arm was bandaged up.

"Why do you look better than me?" Natalia quipped mournfully as she pulled back from Rick.

Even though Natalia practically shouted it at Ryan he struggled to hear over the ringing in his ears. He just about made it out and grinned in answer.

"She's damaged an eardrum," Rick explained.

"Yet she is looking well for someone involved in an explosion," Horatio praised.

The redhead was just as relieved as Rick to see Natalia mostly in one piece. He had been a little more pragmatic about the situation, as they had rushed here, quite certain if it had been truly bad then someone would have told him directly. Still, for a mundane job to go so badly wrong was a little unnerving. That was the dangerous life of the CSI, one never really knew what they were walking into.

Horatio thought of Tim Speedle, gunned down in a shoot-out right before Horatio's eyes. Horatio still remembered the feel of Tim's hot blood smothering his fingers as he pressed down on Tim's chest and futilely tried to keep it in. Tim had no idea that day was going to be his last and he treated it like any other, with his usual cynical outlook on life as they moved through a typical hot Miami day trying to solve a case as important as any other and yet in a way no less ordinary than the majority of them. There had been nothing unusual to suggest that day would end with Tim's death.

Yes, life was fleeting, Horatio knew that well but having knowledge of mortality didn't make it any easier to encounter or prevent.

Horatio glanced at his watch, it was just after seven. It had taken a while before he and Rick had been informed of the incident and then a short while before the doctors had permitted them to see Ryan and Natalia. The redhead wasn't even sure just how long he and Rick had spent trying to get from chaotic uncertainty to this moment of relief. How long how had Cassandra been at home with Marissa and Annabelle in a state of confusion probably trying hard to feign calm. Horatio had already phoned her while standing in the hall with Ryan as Rick saw Natalia and let her know that Ryan and Natalia were going to be fine. He had let Ryan talk to Cassandra to calm her stubborn doubts but had to advise her that Ryan could not hear anything she said.

"Ryan is going to get discharged and then I'm going to take him home," Horatio explained to Rick.

Rick nodded. "Yeah, the sooner you get to the girls the better," he murmured. He turned back to Natalia and squeezed her hand gently. "I'm staying for a bit," he said to her.

Natalia just looked confused, lip reading wasn't exactly something she had mastered. "Are the girls okay?" she demanded.

Rick nodded reassuringly.

"With Cassie?" Natalia ventured a guess.

Rick nodded again. He was trying hard to push back against the smells attacking his senses and trying to plague him with memories. He was staring too hard at her bed remembering how it had felt to be lying in one, sedated and at the mercy of his former boss who had come to taunt and threaten him. He couldn't make this about him, Natalia was here now and he had to focus on that.

Natalia turned her attention back to Horatio and Ryan. She didn't know what to say. She was sore, tired and eager to banish the persistent ringing in her ears. A guilty brown gaze fell on Ryan.

"I'm sorry," she admitted.

Ryan shook his head at this. "It wasn't your fault."

Natalia winced as the pain in her ribs flared up.

Rick leaned forward with an immediate look of concern as he saw her wince.

Natalia gave her partner a reassuring smile even as she leaned back a little to try and find some relief.

"Just banged up a bit," she murmured, "going to be bruises I'm sure."

"Rest," Rick said firmly.

Rick proceed to urge her down into the bed, gentle but firm, as he pushed her down with both hands and brought the light blanket up about her.

"I'm staying," he reaffirmed as he stroked her hair gently. He smiled as he realised she had done the same for him when he was in hospital.

"We'll go," Horatio said.

"Yeah, ring me when you're with the girls," Rick requested.

"Of course," the redhead assured.

* * *

Horatio glanced at the clock on the dash. The digital green numbers flashed 22:03 back at him. It was later than he had anticipated. The hospital had taken longer than expected to discharge Ryan, it was a busy night for them and it had taken a while to find a doctor to sign him out with a prescription for pain medication. They had to get the prescription next before heading back to Horatio's car. The minutes had added into hours and whilst Horatio had tried to keep Cassandra updated with texts he knew she wouldn't settle until he was home no matter what assurances she gave him.

Ryan had finally let his fatigue show on the way home but he had mustered enough energy to try and give Horatio a decent run through of what had happened. He had given a grimace as he joked about their evidence being up in smoke.

Horatio had promised that he would have a team out ASAP to salvage what they could. There was still a murderer out there and now that person had the charge of attempted murder of police personnel added to the charge which bumped them up to an urgent priority in the eyes of the law. A drug dealer with a wired up den was nothing new in Miami sadly and all too common out in the swamp but the mundane nature of it certainly didn't make it okay.

Horatio wondered dryly how he had come to a point in his life where he considered two members of his team almost getting killed by an explosion in a drug den to be mundane. Perhaps it was because the likes of Josh Silverstone had been that little more creative and personal. It was always the ones who made it personal that stood out. Today hadn't been personal, the dealer had his stash rigged for intruders of any kind not specifically cops.

Horatio wondered about Kara Watkins' still evasive killer, had that murder been personal? It certainly seemed like it. Her death had been strangulation, no evidence of rape or torture, one might have considered it a rape or robbery attempt gone wrong except she had disappeared on a club strip but turned up elsewhere and she had been anointed and trussed up as an angel. Stranger still was the still unexplainable presence of Benjamin Bracker's blood. It had everyone wondering if he had really been butchered by his brother Henry five years ago and if Henry hadn't butchered Benjamin had he killed any of his family members? It was hard to imagine the frame up given Henry had been found in the house, the lone survivor in his room, insane and covered in blood.

Horatio still didn't know what to make about it. He was wary that Kara might only be the start. That someone was playing a game they hadn't fully grasped yet. The cases had only one connection- Benjamin Bracker- he had known Kara in life and his blood was on her in death- but otherwise they seemed very different.

Horatio shrugged off his grimness as he pulled up into his driveway and killed the engine. He had to present a happier face to Cassandra, he was bringing good news and he didn't want her worrying unnecessarily.

The redhead stepped out to a mild Miami night and headed up to the front door with ease, keys out and ready. He could see as he approached the house that all the lights were on. He had expected it but he still felt a little dismay as it was a reminder of the fear his fiancée was prone to at night. He paused as his shoe stepped on something plastic on the ground. As he lifted his foot he glanced down and only then realised what else was unusual. There was no porch light to illuminate the porch.

Horatio's blue eyes shifted up to the lamp with a moment of suspicion. He felt a flicker of relief to see that all was in tact and figured the bulb had blown. He scolded himself internally for missing something so obvious at his own house before returning his attention to the item he had stepped on. He crouched down and snatched up the object, frowning as he took it in. It was Cassandra's bank card. He couldn't imagine how she had been so careless.

The redhead unlocked the door quickly and hastened to silence the expected alarm. Hoping he hadn't woken the girls, he locked the door and headed down the brightly lit hall, following the noise of the television travelling out of the ajar living room door.

Horatio headed into the living room where Cassandra was quick to greet him as she immediately turned round to confirm that it was definitely him.

He watched as relief visibly flooded her face and the tension of wariness seeped from her shoulders. His cerulean eyes swept over her, taking note of the watery bloodshot condition of her right eye and the way she had her head tilted in that direction and her right hand twitched as she struggled to restrain it, undoubtedly fighting an urge to bring it up to cradle her temple.

"Cassie are you alright?" Horatio queried gently.

"I'm fine," she murmured with a smile.

The blonde reached for the remote and turned the volume down a few bars before she stood up from the couch.

"How are the girls?" Horatio pried. He knew she was lying and was upset that pride kept her withholding the truth of her fears from him.

"In bed," she retorted. Her tone was a little odd and her brown stare seemed to avoid Horatio, looking past him to the doorway.

Horatio, still holding her bank card, took a step towards her.

"Are they asleep?" he queried, guessing at what she withholding.

Cassandra sighed and pressed her hand up to the sore point of her skull at last. "No," she muttered, "at least Annabelle isn't, Mari might be I suppose. You know it was fine for a while, I had them at the shop earlier today, thought we could get a few snacks."

Cassandra paused and gave an amused but tired smile. "I didn't realise how much of a handful two young girls can be, it took a lot of juggling but we got there in the end. Annabelle had never had s'mores so we made some in the kitchen. It was fine, fun but then it got later and I tried...I mean you hadn't called yet and they were worried, I was too but you know, I tried to be calm."

Cassandra's smile faded and she dug the side of her head into her palm with a wince.

"Annabelle got really upset, she was just crying, shaking and then it upset Mari, they were both bawling for Rick at some point. I didn't really know what to do, what do you do? My mom just let me cry and then he..." Cassandra bristled as she stared at the ground. "Well never mind him. Rick always tried to get me to shut up, he was always trying to be firm, telling me off but he was just anxious, knowing we'd have something worse coming if I wasn't. I remember he used to try and distract me so I did that."

Cassandra ventured another smile up at her fiancé but this one was weaker.

"I had them do some drawings for Rick and Natalia, gave them some juice, got them into bed. Mari wanted stories but I couldn't do that."

Cassandra dipped her head again as she felt her eye burn and seep water, crying out the pain of her headache.

"I couldn't," she said softly. "A simple book of fairytales but I couldn't even look at the pages. I just told them to go to sleep and I left."

Horatio nodded sympathetically. He knew what bedtime stories meant to Cassandra, it wasn't sweet but instead conjured a memory of nightmarish crime stories read to her in the night by a drunk stepfather who had dragged her from bed for a show and tell of newspaper articles of murders and kidnappings and other perverse things. The late Balthasar Garrett had committed so many horrors upon his stepchildren that it almost sounded fictional when one heard about it. Yet for all Horatio had learned from Cassandra and Rick about their sufferings at the hands of the man he was quite certain there was still a lot more they hadn't shared and he wondered if they ever would.

Horatio stepped up to the blonde and reached to her with his free hand, pressing it lightly against her brow and stroking it. She was warm to the touch and sweat beads were forming on her forehead.

"Cassie you need your injection," he murmured. "Come, we'll sort it and I'll check on the girls."

Cassandra nodded agreeably.

Horatio withdrew his hand and kissed her brow lightly, as much to reassure him as her that things were alright.

"So, you said Ryan and Natalia were good," she murmured, "and you haven't mentioned them yet so I assume that's still true. Is Rick staying with Natalia?"

Horatio nodded. "Yes and I've left Ryan home, the ringing in his ears should fade overnight so he will be hearing fine tomorrow hopefully."

Cassandra's dark gaze brightened slightly at this news but then she was wincing again, irritated by the lights and the faint noise of the television.

"Cassie how long have you the headache for?" Horatio pried.

Cassandra shrugged him off. "Just an hour or so, it was mild, it's only getting worse now," she insisted.

Horatio resisted the urge to admonish her, he could see she was tired and he felt his own weariness creeping in. It had been a long day for all of them. He knew why she had resisted her injection, she didn't like it at the best of times but it had a tendency to make her dopey and tired, which was the same as vulnerable and not a state she was willing to put herself in while in charge of the girls. It didn't matter than having the distraction of a budding cluster headache made her vulnerable too, Cassandra would choose to try and control that over fighting the influence of her medication. It was something she had in common with her equally stubborn brother.

Horatio considered bothering her about the bank card later but he didn't like to hide things from her, even for her own good. He held it out to her with a calm stare.

"I found this outside in the porch," he explained.

Cassandra was surprised as she took the card and turned it over. She had to blink a few times and tug her glasses down to rub away water from her eyes before pushing the glasses up again to see. "My bank card," she said with a sense of disbelief, "but how?"

Cassandra turned from Horatio to the couch she had been sitting on. On the coffee table opposite it was a tasselled bag, colourful and decorated with beads on the tassels. Cassandra lifted it up and inspected it. It was made of threads depicting a blue sky with suns and rainbows and apparently had had its day as there was a neat hole at its base.

"What the hell?" Cassandra grumbled as she turned it about to inspect the tear. "It must have caught on something, shit."

She doubled over and pressed a hand to her brow as a groan of pain escaped her.

"Shit how didn't I notice?"

She hunted through it quickly for her possessions, plucking them out one by one in a panicked motion.

"I just threw the card in after the shop," she grumbled, "lucky it fell out at the porch."

Horatio felt the scorn and worry of a cop rise within him, her card had her name and date of birth on it, in the wrong hands there could be fraud, and in the very wrong hands there could be worse. He made himself swallow down his concerns, reminding himself of all Cassandra had suffered while he had known her, she wasn't foolish, this had been an accident and hell no one was hunting her or him, those people were dead or behind bars.

Seeing how she fussed and worried and winced as her rising woes worsened her headache, prompted Horatio to step forward and embrace her lightly with both hands.

"Stop," he urged her gently.

Cassandra froze up and let the bag sag to the table again.

"I'm an idiot," she scorned herself. "So reckless, I was distracted by the girls but I shouldn't have been, you'd think I'd have heard it tear or felt it. Shit, my I.D could have been dropped anywhere, keys, medication, shit, shit-"

"Cassandra stop," Horatio interrupted her sternly.

He pressed his mouth against her brow again as he held her lightly against him.

"It was an accident," he reassured her, "and you have everything don't you?"

She nodded and cursed as the gesture sent a fresh pang of pain through her.

"It's been a long day honey, let's just sort your headache out, check the girls and go to bed," he suggested. "Tomorrow, we're getting you a better bag."

"We?" she echoed. "You want to go bag shopping?" She tried to sound humorous but her voice was bitter as her gaze remained annoyed.

Horatio frowned at this but his stare twinkled with mirth.

"No but I'll do it anyway, for better or worse," he teased.

Cassandra finally gave him a smile again.

Horatio kissed her on the mouth this time, a chaste gesture to offer her some reassurance.

When he broke from her, he reached for the remote and turned the television off before taking her hand and guiding her from the room.

Horatio led Cassandra up to their bedroom. Telling her to get ready for bed, he retreated back down the hall to the spare room.

The spare room had initially just contained a single bed but a few weeks ago Horatio had invested in a twin set and replaced the single with them. The room was big enough for it and he said to Cassandra it was better having them than not. Sure, Annabelle never stayed as she was in foster care so that made it a little complicated but somehow Horatio had known there might be an exception.

The redhead considered grimly that the agency would soon learn about what had happened to Natalia. They would ask questions, check boxes and pry into Rick's whereabouts and, more importantly, Annabelle's whereabouts and assess the impact the trauma of it all might have on her. Then they would query the situation of the girl living with two police personnel, how practical and safe was it really?

Horatio knew something no one else did, that the agency was unduly harsh with Rick and overall unhappy with having Annabelle in his care. They remembered the case of a social service worker getting murdered by Josh Silverstone when he had attempted to abduct Marissa from them. Rick was still being unfairly penalised for this and all the other horrors he had suffered and he wasn't considered to be presenting a stable environment.

The reason why Rick had Annabelle was because she only responded to him. In the children's home she had been quiet except at night when she screamed. She was largely unresponsive and always scared and only ever showed any kind of ease when Rick had visited. Rick made her feel safe, he had been her rescuer after all, the cop in the rain who had shot down her kidnappers and battled back another one of them even as he bled from a bullet wound. She had seen him in pain and still fighting back and he had won and she was safe. Rick was her rescuer, it was simple but more than that he made an effort with her when few others did.

So, Rick got to foster Annabelle but social services and the foster system were eternally wary of the arrangement. Only Horatio knew about the arguing Rick did with the social workers and the worries he had of Annabelle being plucked from him. Even Natalia didn't know how bad things were between Rick and social services. They tolerated him but only just.

The door was open and as Horatio looked in he wasn't surprised to see two sets of eyes looking back. Both curious and upset.

The redhead felt a familiar woe to see that look in Marissa and Annabelle, it was a worried stare they had both possessed far too often for their young ages.

"Where's Uncle Rick?" Marissa queried quietly.

"He's with Natalia," Horatio answered as he gave them a soothing smile.

The redhead stepped into the room as he saw that Annabelle's eyes were swollen from crying and she trembled slightly.

"They're both fine," he assured. "Natalia was hurt but not badly and Uncle Rick is staying the night her to keep her company."

"No!"

Marissa jumped at the squeal that escaped Annabelle whilst Horatio looked at her with fresh concern.

"No!" she repeated as the sobs started to escape from her. "I...I..." She started to stammer through her sobs. "I want him! I...I...I want daddy!" she squealed.

It was less of a tantrum and more of an outburst of terror.

Horatio approached the side of her bed slowly, determined to put her at ease. He rested his hands lightly on his knees and bent down slightly so that he was more level with her.

"Annabelle I know you're scared, this is new for you to stay here but I promise you are safe."

"Aunt Cassie checked under the beds," Marissa piped up pointedly. She was hugging her doll Becky close and looking over at Annabelle with annoyance.

"She didn't do it right," Annabelle whimpered, "and this isn't...he always says about the cameras watching."

Horatio nodded as he gave a small smile. "Annabelle we have cameras here too and I have locked the doors, you are safe," he insisted. "How about I read you girls a story and you try and sleep?" he offered.

Annabelle shook her head quietly as tears streaked down her cheeks. "I want Rick," she sniffled.

"I know but he's looking after Natalia," Horatio explained. "He asked me and Cassie very nicely to look after you, just for this one night. Now, why don't you both lie down properly and I'll start this story."

The pair lay down obediently but Horatio could see that neither girl was happy about it. Rick was the story teller not him.

Horatio occupied a seat between the two beds and started to read through a book of fairytales. He read calmly and clearly but attempted no voices and didn't show the girls the pictures as he wanted them to fall asleep. He was deliberately slow in an attempt to get them to drift off and it had the desired effect.

It took almost half an hour before the girls were asleep. Horatio departed quietly, leaving the lamp between them on and their bedroom door ajar so the hall light could drift in.

When he reached his bedroom he found Cassandra waiting in a pair of navy, silk shorts and a matching vest top. She was lying on the bed, upright with her head against a raised pillow as she winced slightly.

Horatio saw the used needle on her cabinet and guessed that she had injected herself.

The redhead stepped into the room and pushed the door half-closed before reaching to turn off the main light sending them into a welcome dimness as only the lamp at Cassandra's bedside gave the room light.

Horatio stripped off quietly before hunting a New York Yankees' t-shirt to don. He slipped it on with ease before lying down on the bed beside the blonde.

"They're asleep," he informed her quietly.

Cassandra turned to him with a smile. "You always have a way with kids," she remarked brightly.

"You do too," he retorted. "You were good minding them all day."

"Hmm it's just the nights I fail at," she grumbled.

Horatio leaned forward and gave her a gentle kiss. "As a team we've got it covered."

Cassandra's smile widened as she returned the kiss. "We, you always say it but I still find it odd to be a part of that we," she admitted.

Horatio's hand moved up her arm, stroking it gently before pausing at her shoulder strap. "It's going to be for always," he murmured, "you and I, we."

Cassandra gave him another kiss. "Hmm I like that," she mused.


	11. Chapter 11- Interrogation

Rick stared across the table calmly at the prisoner. Having spent many years in a role that involved interrogation, Rick was in his element now. He wondered dryly as he studied the man opposite him if he really was sane as the D.A had proven five years ago.

Henry Bracker was neat on the surface with militant short blonde hair and a clean shaven face but budding bruises and old scars on his exposed flesh told of an unpleasant life in prison as both kin and child killer and his hazel eyes shifted rapidly between vacant and animated as if simultaneously welcoming and rejecting various presences.

Henry's focus darted between Rick and Detective Frost as he cocked his head from one to the other.

Whilst Tobias Frost sat in on the interview with Rick, his partner Detective Carson was with CSI Wolfe and Lieutenant Caine talking with a witness who had come forward claiming to have potentially seen Kara Watkins the night of her murder.

Henry gave Tobias a small smirk. "It's been five years," he murmured, "what did you find?"

Rick wasn't surprised that Henry had guessed why they were here. He had checked the man's records, on the first year of imprisonment there had been a few token visits from his uncle but after that no one had visited. He figured going for the honest approach was best since it was public news about Benjamin Bracker's blood showing up on the senator's daughter.

"Five years ago the bodies of Rose, Viola and Clara Bracker and the body parts of Hunter and Bruce Bracker were discovered. The remains of Rose, Clara and Hunter were found within the Bracker House whilst Viola's body was found in the garden pond and the body parts of Bruce Bracker were located in a nearby copse," Rick summarised calmly.

Rick kept his cool stare fixed upon Henry as he spoke, watching for any sign of emotion.

Henry's eyes contained to dart about and his fingers rapped off the table lightly but he showed no clear reaction to Rick's words.

"Benjamin Bracker, the third child and youngest son was not found," Rick stated bluntly. "Despite repeated searches all that turned up were blood spatters within the house, DNA samples proved they belonged to Benjamin Bracker. However, it was a small quantity of blood, enough to suggest injury but not death and as the bodies were there for a number of days before discovery there was no way to prove a time of origin for the blood spatters of Benjamin Bracker."

Henry glanced sharply to his left and tugged at his cuffed hands impatiently causing the chain they were linked to, to jingle before he resumed tapping on the table.

"Five years on and a young woman called Kara Watkins who was once a friend of Benjamin's has been murdered. Her body was discovered stained in Benjamin Bracker's blood. Again, we have been unable to conclude the age of the blood stains."

"Watkins," Henry murmured distastefully. He grinned suddenly and his eyes rolled from Rick to Tobias and then back to Rick. "Daddy's favourite fuck."

Tobias' gaze widened slightly at this remark. He sat with his arms folded on the table and tried to maintain a blank expression, cautioning himself that Henry was probably just yanking their chain.

"Did you know Kara Watkins and her family?" Rick queried calmly.

"Her and Ben were part of a group," Henry mused, "poor Ben thought she'd pretty eyes for him but she liked men not boys."

"And how do you know that?" Tobias asked with a curious look.

Henry's hazel eyes turned upon Tobias with a fierce stare. "Blondie speaks," he marvelled. "I hate the silence because it's never real, gives the other noises a chance to dominate. Secrets behind closed doors blondie but I lived behind the closed doors so I know." Henry stretched up his hands so he could tap the side of his brow pointedly with one finger.

Tobias nodded. "How do you know Kara Watkins liked men?"

"A family thing," Henry mused humorously with another smirk, "he had no love for his children, it was all taken by Watkins."

"Who had no love for their children, Henry?" Rick pried.

"Dad," Henry retorted chirpily, "lots of love for Watkins but none for the Brackers."

Rick considered his next question carefully. Like Tobias he was considering that Henry could be spinning them a work of fiction but Rick couldn't ignore the possibility that it might be true.

"Henry, are you trying to tell us that Kara Watkins was in a relationship with your father?"

Henry giggled before nodding. "Yes, yes," he said excitedly.

Rick and Tobias exchanged a glance, neither had been expecting this revelation.

"Alright," Rick said calmly, "and did Benjamin know this?"

"No, he thought the eyes were for him," Henry mused.

"Where was Benjamin the day you family was attacked?" Tobias pried.

It was of course a question Henry had been asked many times and always he had given the same answer of 'I don't know'.

"Somewhere," Henry answered childishly as he scratched at his chin causing the chain to jingle again.

"Where?" Rick pushed for an answer.

Henry turned his head up to the ceiling. "I don't know," he said flatly.

"You said a figure wrapped in darkness was there," Tobias reminded him. "Who was that Henry?"

Henry let out a pained chuckle at this that set Tobias' teeth on edge. "Death," he answered cheerfully to the ceiling.

* * *

Ryan Wolfe felt only annoyance for the man sitting at the table opposite Horatio and Detective Jack Carson. He was a witness and possibly the last person to have seen Kara Watkins alive although he murmured some weak suggestion of doubt. Despite having seen news of her unpleasant demise he had still hesitated to come forward with his story, claiming a fear that he wouldn't be believed but, as it was starting to come out, it was more probable he had a fear of getting arrested himself.

The man was small, ordinary and evidently uneasy judging from the way his gaze kept darting anxiously from one man to the other.

They occupied a small tea room in the MDHQ but its relaxed surroundings had done little to ease the woes of a witness who didn't want to talk to anyone in an interview room.

Ryan stood against a counter, arms folded as he stared down at the man impatiently, well aware that he was meant to be turned away busying himself with making a cup of coffee so the man didn't feel intimidated. Ryan hated having to pander to the weak, anxious male, he was outraged that the man had waited this long to come forward and that he might have been Kara's last sliver of hope before she had perished.

"Mr. Hoyt, please run through your account of the evening once more," Horatio compelled him calmly.

The man, Mr. Hoyt, swallowed hard before glancing down to his half-drank cold cup of coffee and then staring up at the redhead as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"It was late, around one maybe," he said hastily as he frowned, "I'm not sure." He gave Horatio a sharp glance. "I did say I wasn't sure," he insisted. "I was driving and I saw a girl walking on the street and thought she might need help."

Jack Carson almost looked bored as he stared back at the man, glancing down briefly to write on his notepad. Jack was a lean man with an eternally weary looking gaze, which gave him the deceptive look of someone unthreatening.

"Did you have the car radio on?" Jack quipped calmly. His pale eyes darted up momentarily.

Mr. Hoyt looked puzzled and then annoyed. "No, there's never anything good on at that time," he grumbled.

Horatio raised his golden-red eyebrows slightly at this. "There's never anything good on at what time?" he queried.

"One, anytime after one," Mr. Hoyt mumbled.

"And why did you think the girl needed help?" Jack queried. "Miami is a popular place for late night party goers, what made you think she wasn't just another young woman bar hopping?"

"She had no shoes on," Mr. Hoyt's rose an octave as he practically shouted this, "or purse and she was wobbling all over the sidewalk."

"And what happened after you pulled over?" Horatio asked, eager to get to the part of the story that had really startled them.

Mr. Hoyt frowned and folded his arms defensively. "She told me to get lost," he stated bluntly, "she was drunk and had the wrong idea I guess. I tried to explain but then this cop appeared and said he'd deal with it. I told him I just wanted to help, which I did," he added pointedly with a fresh scowl, "and he said it was fine, that he'd get her home and then he waved me off."

"Did he use those words?" Horatio quipped. "Get her home?"

Mr. Hoyt nodded. "Yes, he definitely said home but isn't that what a cop would do?"

Ryan sighed heavily, drawing three pairs of eyes to him. He looked to Mr. Hoyt and gave him a cool stare. He knew he was being unfair to the man but he didn't care, Mr. Hoyt had no real good reason for not coming forward, he might be afraid they'd wonder if he was cruising for prostitutes but speculation didn't equal evidence and it wasn't like he'd actually committed the crime of picking up a prostitute, not unless he'd done it after.

Horatio speculated the word choice. A cop would probably have been a little vaguer, committing to taking someone drunk and disorderly home was risky, if they were abusive then it would be lock-up and then there'd be accusations of the arrestee being mislead or arrested under false circumstances and the police weren't taxis, it would be more proper to take the person to safety- a police car or station perhaps, and then try to get a relation or friend to come and collect them. Of course it could have been a rookie cop or a do gooder or just someone trying to dismiss a concerned citizen like Mr Hoyt with reassurances.

"And what did this cop look like?" Jack asked.

"Like any cop," Mr. Hoyt retorted waspishly. "He had the uniform, badge at his hip and a holstered gun. Hard to see much, it was dark," he added with a frown, "and I was in my car."

"He didn't approach you?" Horatio queried. "Lean into the window?"

Mr. Hoyt shook his head. "He'd no reason too, the girl was the problem."

"And was she Kara?" Jack demanded as he looked over at the man calmly.

Mr. Hoyt shrugged. At the start of their conversation he'd been 'almost certain', then he'd babbled, shrugged and talked about getting only a glimpse so it was a 'maybe'.

"She had the blonde curls and was in a dark dress."

"You saw the colour of her hair but not the cop's?" Jack pried.

"He had a cap on," the man retorted defensively, "one of those police hats with the black brim and a gold band across it."

"Gold?" Horatio repeated.

The man nodded confidently with another frown.

Jack was back to writing in his notepad whilst Ryan shook his head.

"What does that matter?" the man pried.

"Police officers in Miami tend to wear their hats for ceremonies only and the band is silver, gold would be a higher rank," Horatio informed him calmly.

The man paled slightly and a look of horror filled his eyes. "Well I couldn't know that, who would know that?"

"Do you often see police officers in hats?" Ryan queried sarcastically.

The young CSI felt guilty for his remark when he caught Horatio's disapproving stare and yet when he saw Mr. Hoyt squirm uncomfortably and frown his anger for the man returned swiftly.

"No but I don't often see police," Mr. Hoyt muttered. "So he wasn't an officer then?"

"Possibly not," Horatio admitted. He gave Mr. Hoyt a serious stare. "Which means Mr. Hoyt that there is a high possibility that you not only witnessed Kara's potential last moments alive but that you are also our one witness to our possible killer's appearance."

Mr. Hoyt's pallor took on an unhealthy shade and he swallowed hard again. "It was dark," he repeated quietly, "and I was in the car. I just saw the uniform really, it seemed convincing."

"What was his voice like?" Jack queried, still calm. "Did you have the engine running as he spoke?"

"Yes."

"And you made him out even though he didn't approach the window?" Jack continued to pry.

The man nodded. "He spoke clearly and I told you, my radio was off and it was quiet outside."

"So he didn't have to shout and he had no noticeable accent?"

"No."

Jack nodded as he wrote some more.

Mr. Hoyt parted his arms and glanced at his watch. "Can I go?" he demanded. "I've told you everything twice now. I just, I don't even know for sure that it was her but I think it was."

Ryan frowned again, thinking silently that it was more of a case of Mr. Hoyt hoping that it wasn't Kara because then his conscience might be cleaner.

"I'd like you to meet with a sketch artist," Horatio said, "perhaps you could help us form an idea of this police officer."

"I didn't see his face," the man insisted. "Look, I've spoken to enough of you, I'm sorry I couldn't help more but I've done all I can."

Mr. Hoyt pushed back his chair causing an unpleasant screech on the lino floor. He stood up, brushed down his sleeves with his hands and looked to his watch again.

"Well thank you for your help," Horatio said graciously.

Jack stood up and offered out the man a card. "My number," he explained, "please call if you remember something else Mr. Hoyt." He gave the man a brief, thin smile.

The man accepted the card but frowned at Jack's smile, finding something unpleasant in it.

"I'll show you out," Ryan said as he stepped away from the counter. He gave Mr. Hoyt a wide, innocent smile that displeased the man as much as Jack's did.

"Er...well, of course," Mr. Hoyt mumbled as he glanced to the door.

Ryan headed to the door and opened it before gesturing for the man to leave. He felt Horatio's warning stare upon him as he followed after the witness.

"What a tool," Jack murmured dryly once Mr. Hoyt was gone. He was back to his notepad, scribbling and scoring out notes.

"At the moment he's our best witness," Horatio murmured coolly.

"God help us then," Jack retorted sardonically.

Horatio glanced over at the younger detective curiously. He knew very little about Jack Carson and had met him under unpleasant circumstances when Jack was in hiding from detectives trying to set up him and murder him as well. Prior to that Jack had been an undercover narcotics detective but things had turned sour when his partner, Annabelle's late father Jason Ferris, had been blackmailed into murdering a young woman before getting him killed himself.

Jack still wore a gaunt look, he was a dark, mistrusting man and only socialised because his partner Tobias Frost and boss Rick Stetler practically forced him into it.

Horatio wondered about Jack's abilities as a homicide detective, he was still in training after all but had impressed the redhead with his questions for Mr. Hoyt and his harmless, bland interviewing manner.

"Do you doubt his story?" Horatio queried.

Jack shook his head. "No, he doesn't seem the type to have a good imagination, if he did he'd have come up with something better than a cop. No, there was a man disguised as a cop that night but that means there's every chance this wasn't personal but a crime of opportunity and we have some nutcase dressing up as a cop to lure vulnerable women to their deaths."

Jack frowned and pushed a hand up into his messy, brown hair as he shook his head. "Except Kara wasn't raped and her eyes being pushed in and the presence of Bracker's blood seems personal, like a message."

Horatio nodded agreeably. "A message we're not translating," he murmured.

Horatio stood up from the table. "I have to go Detective Carson, type up the notes on this and we'll review it with Rick and Tobias, perhaps they'll do better with Henry Bracker."

"Doubtful," Jack said grimly to his notepad.

Horatio ignored the comment and headed for the door. He had to go collect Annabelle and Marissa from school and deliver them to Natalia. The young CSI had been discharged from the hospital but was under strict orders to take it easy and not return to work for a couple of weeks.

* * *

Horatio stared at the mail he had brought in with an expression of unease. There was an envelope addressed to Cassandra, pale blue with fancy font it looked like something from a mailing list. What had drawn Horatio's attention was the black font indicating the sender- Sunshine Storks, complete with the silhouette of a stork in flight carrying a bundle in its beak. Horatio hadn't heard of the company but he could guess what it must be connected to.

The redhead sat down the envelope on the kitchen counter, he wanted to speculate that it was junk mail but there were no typos, her name and address were correct and it didn't include the usual arraignment of bold, colourful font or asterixs or stars to suggest spam mail. The idea that Cassandra would be signing up to things however before telling him what would be life changing news didn't add up either. He knew he'd have to ask her about it but she was at work for another hour and he had to take the kids to Natalia and head to his next case.

Marissa and Annabelle were at the dining table sharing sandwiches which had been prepared in the morning and left in the fridge by Cassandra for their snack. Horatio had collected them from school and had brought them to his house for food and to give Natalia a longer chance to rest. Cassandra would be heading up there after work to help Natalia with the girls while they waited for Rick.

Natalia of course was adamant that she didn't need the help but she had only been out of hospital for a couple of days and was still in pain and having trouble with her hearing. This had Rick quite firm that she did the help and he was barely pacified by Cassandra's aid outside her work hours.

Horatio glanced up at Marissa's giggling as she bounced her doll Becky across the dining table. He smiled at the sight before returning his gaze to the mail. He knew there was no point wondering and worrying about it until he could talk to Cassandra.

Horatio tugged his sunglasses out of his shirt pocket and slipped them on before walking up the girls. "Are you ready to go?" he quipped.

Marissa smiled up at him and nodded whilst Annabelle stared at the table quietly. Annabelle had only eaten a quarter of her sandwich.

Horatio stared down at the remaining half and a quarter. "Do you want to bring your food with you?" he queried gently.

Annabelle's ears reddened slightly and she shook her head quickly.

Horatio crouched down so that he was level with her and gave a disarming smile. "Are you sure? I can wrap it up for you."

"It's okay," Annabelle mumbled quietly to the table.

"Alright."

Horatio stood upright, knowing better than to push the issue. He got it, Annabelle just didn't feel secure with anyone without Rick nearby.

"Let's get you girls home then," he said brightly.

Horatio cleaned up the table quickly before leading the girls out to the waiting jeep.

As the house was only one street over the drive was fast and they were at Rick and Natalia's house in mere minutes.

Horatio rang the doorbell and waited politely for Natalia to arrive. He had a spare key and the alarm code but didn't want to startle the woman unnecessarily. When a minute went by he buzzed the doorbell once more with a look of concern.

The wait for Natalia was longer than the car drive over but to Horatio's relief she answered with a smile.

"Good afternoon Natalia," Horatio greeted as the girls hastened past to enter the house.

"Afternoon," she retorted as her smile widened as she turned it down to Annabelle and Marissa. "How was school girls?"

"Good, we got to paint," Marissa answered chirpily.

Natalia cocked her head with a slight glance of confusion down at Marissa.

Annabelle was silent and lingered in the corridor awkwardly.

Natalia returned her attention to Horatio. "Come in, please," she insisted.

Horatio was ready to refuse but he saw her pained stare before she attempted to mask it with another smile and figured a few moments with her couldn't hurt.

The redhead stepped into the house and allowed Natalia to lead the way into the kitchen. At Marissa's request she opened the patio doors to let the girls out to play in the back garden.

Natalia moved to the cupboards and stretched up with a wince.

"Do you need help?" Horatio queried with a glance of concern from beneath his dark shades.

Natalia ignored him as she winced again before successfully put out two cups from the cupboard. She set them down on the counter and turned on the coffee machine.

Horatio tugged off his shades as he continued to regard her with concern.

Once the coffee was ready, Natalia brought them over to the kitchen table before flopping down on a cushioned seat with a look of relief. Her face still bore some mild swelling and bruising but she looked a lot better since Horatio had last seen her.

The redhead took a seat to her left and pulled his cup over. "Thanks," he said.

Natalia turned to face him and looked puzzled for a moment. "Sorry," she said as she read the worry on her boss' face, "my ear still gets ringing sometimes." She frowned and her warm gaze filled with woe.

Horatio nodded sympathetically. "Is that all?" he pried, making an effort to speak louder.

"It's enough," Natalia retorted grimly as she turned her stare outwards to the garden. A weary sigh escaped her.

"What do you mean Natalia?" Horatio queried, knowing there was something else annoying her.

Natalia glanced back to Horatio at once both annoyed and grateful for his observation skills. She lifted her coffee cup and blew on it softly before taking a small sip. She lowered the cup and stole another glance outside before returning a serious stare to Horatio.

"It's not just from the explosion," she confessed, "the injury exacerbated an old injury." Natalia frowned again as held Horatio's calm, cerulean gaze. "You remember Nick."

Horatio nodded. Of course he remembered Natalia's ex-husband although he had only met the man a few times before his murder. A charmer, he had also been an abuser who had manipulated Natalia into a relationship in which he claimed to love her and yet was happy to beat her senseless when the notion took him.

"Well he gave me a concussion once and evidently that left damage to my ear which is now worse," she explained quickly as if hoping to distance herself from the story by speaking fast.

Natalia took another sip from her cup and gave the open patio doors another wary glance, fearful of the girls coming in and overhearing her confession.

"I got my hearing checked out yesterday," she admitted, "and the doctor gave me leaflets for numbers to ring to report relationship abuse." She sighed again and gave Horatio a worried stare. "I tried to explain but he thought I was just covering up. Horatio, social services have been round twice since my accident, they're just looking for an excuse and you know Rick, he can't exactly hold his temper sometimes, which isn't helping." Natalia frowned again as she realised her error. "His temper with them, verbally I mean. Oh shit," she surprised her boss with a swear as she clenched her cup tight and bowed her head to her cup.

"Natalia I know," Horatio reassured gently as he extended a hand across the table to give her arm a quick squeeze of support. "Rick would never lay a hand upon you, I know that. There's a record of Nick's abuse of you, it will be easy to explain if social services brings it up."

Horatio withdrew his hand again.

Natalia turned a teary stare up to the redhead. "I don't know, Nick was so long ago, they might not believe that the explosion irritated an injury that old but that is what happened," she insisted. "I don't get it, Rick is so good with Annabelle and he is the only one he responds to, you'd think they'd be delighted to keep that relationship going."

"A social service worker got murdered while Marissa was in her care," Horatio reminded her, "and Rick has been in the spotlight a lot, on paper he probably doesn't seem ideal but I agree, he is good with her, so are you. Unfortunately, social services would probably prefer not to deal with him because they consider his lifestyle to always present a risk and because they have clashed with him on a personal level so many times now," he added with a small smile.

Natalia gave a bitter smile as she thumbed away the unspilled tears in the corner of her eyes. "He still goes to therapy but these social service people are a trigger for him and he just loses it and snaps at them sometimes."

"Look Natalia, if it comes to it, I'll make sure I defend him," he said seriously, "and there is more than enough evidence to show how good he is with Annabelle, her teachers can vouch for her improved mood as well as us. As for your ear, you push for treatment for that and don't try and hide it because of your past, it's more dangerous for you to ignore something like that," he cautioned with a stern stare.

Natalia nodded. "I know, I do but I don't want anyone ever thinking Rick did or even could do something like that."

Horatio felt a slight prickle of guilt as he considered how he had once thought it of Rick when seeing Yelina with a bruise despite her insistences that Horatio had gotten it wrong. Rick more often than not demonstrated an abrasive, hostile personality, it was a lot milder than what it had been but there was a still an element of impatience and irritation there that sadly went against him as it had some people ready to believe he was capable of worse.

"The evidence is there to prove it was Nick," Horatio reminded her with a reassuring look, "and we know how important evidence is."

Natalia nodded agreeably. "Well," she said calmly as she pushed back a strand of golden-brown hair, "how about something more positive? I still want to arrange a night for Cassie to celebrate your engagement."

"Are you up for that?"

"Not tonight but this weekend perhaps if it was nothing too strenuous, which I don't think cocktails would be."

Horatio nodded. "Alright, well..." He hesitated thinking of the envelope at his house, if there was any truth to that then Cassandra wouldn't be able to drink. Horatio kept his expression calm. "Cassie will be round after work so you can talk about it with her then," he suggested.

Natalia smiled. "Yes, she mentioned discussing colour schemes too and I could do with this distraction," she admitted.

"Hmm." Horatio stood up from the table leaving his coffee undrunk. "Well I have to go to another case but make sure to stay away from any flashy patterns, or a mixture of colours," he pleaded, "plain is nice."

Natalia smiled up at him. "Basically, avoid anything resembling Rick's ties?" she quipped.

Horatio nodded. "If you can."

"Poor Cassie," Natalia mocked. Her smile widened at the glimmer of guilt in Horatio's gaze. "Don't worry Horatio, I'll make sure she never thinks anyone might consider her tastes to be a little...too quirky. I will be subtle in steering her towards the tasteful."

Horatio nodded as he tugged out his sunglasses again. "Thanks Natalia."


	12. Chapter 12- Victim Number Two

When Natalia answered the door to Cassandra she knew something wasn't quite right but as she stared at the younger woman she couldn't quite work out what was amiss. The CSI took the blonde in top to bottom- she was wearing sandals, light denim shorts, a white t-shirt with a pastel coloured picture of the Miami landscape and a pale orange trim, a white, netted, long, open shrug, and her usually variety of colourful jewellery. Natalia almost wanted to snap her fingers as she spied the oddity before mentally cursing herself for not spotting it immediately. Just a few days in hospital and already she was getting rusty on her investigative skills.

"Where are your glasses Cassie?" Natalia quipped as she stepped back to let the woman into her home.

Cassandra entered with a muttered curse that was just a little too low for Natalia to pick up with her temperamental hearing. The blonde whirled round dramatically to face the CSI.

"Gone," Cassandra answered simply, making her voice louder than normal as she was aware of Natalia's hearing woes. She slapped her hands against her thighs for theatrical effect causing her tasselled, tan satchel to bounce slightly with the movement.

"I remember putting them in my locker because I had to work the splash zone where the sea lions are but they weren't there when I went back. I don't know how or why, everything else was there." She frowned and fidgeted with her hair with one hand. "I just...I can't figure it out and they're expensive and I'm half blind without them."

Natalia gave her a sympathetic look. "They'll turn up," she assured.

Cassandra sighed as she lowered her hand. "I'm not sure, I keep misplacing things lately and messing up my shifts at work, I don't know what the hell's going on lately." She frowned before shrugging.

"Wedding stress maybe?" Natalia suggested lightly.

Cassandra rubbed at her nose slightly, reaching to push up glasses that weren't there. "Maybe," she grumbled. "I mean Horatio has managed to lose Eric and Kyle over it. I offered to talk to them, I want to talk them," she said sternly. "If they don't like me I can deal with it but they shouldn't fall out with him over it. I feel I could make amends somehow but I'd probably just make it all worse," she concluded moodily.

Natalia reached out a hand and squeezed Cassandra's right shoulder gently. She gave a small smile, thinking how alike Cassandra could be to her brother, moody and angry even when meaning well, and always predicting the worst outcome instead of hoping for the best.

"Cassie, Eric is a stubborn guy but he's sensitive too, this is more to do with the guilt he feels over Marisol's death, please don't take it personally. He will come around," she assured. She left it unspoken that Eric still hadn't come around to her dating Rick. She determined that maybe she would talk to him in Cassandra's stead or perhaps speak to Calleigh to get her to intervene.

"Anyway," Natalia lowered her hand, "the girls are in the kitchen finishing up homework and you and I need to talk wedding plans." She gestured for Cassandra to walk through.

Cassandra headed to the kitchen, pausing to wince and squint at the bright afternoon sunlight streaming into it. She raised a hand to her brow to shield her eyes before scanning the room for the girls. They were over to the left on a couch by a small table, quietly writing on their jotters. Becky and a stuffed cat were sandwiched between them.

Marissa glanced up and gave a wide smile. "Aunt Cassie!" she greeted happily.

Cassandra smiled back but her dark eyes were mired with confusion as she tried to get the slightly blurred image before her to focus.

"You finish your homework Mari," Natalia instructed, "your aunt and I will be right over here having a coffee."

Cassandra lowered her hand and glanced at Natalia. "Do you need a hand?" she queried.

Natalia shook her head. "No, you sit."

Cassandra was relieved to head to the kitchen table. When she reached for the seat her fingertips only grasped the edge as she misjudged the distance of it. She frowned and took a firm hold of it. She occupied the seat and her frown deepened as she saw magazines resting in the centre of the table and found their font and covers a mysterious blur to her. She blinked and rubbed at her eyes in frustration.

Natalia saw the blonde's frustration as she carried over the coffee cups to the table. She figured the wedding magazines could wait another day as she set down the cups with a barely concealed wince.

"So Cassie, we really have to celebrate your engagement," she said cheerfully as she took a seat. "In fact we are, you, me, Yelina, Calleigh and anyone else you might like, a girls night of cocktails."

Cassandra looked over at Natalia with surprise at the offer and the list of guests. She tried to hide her bitterness as she considered the named guests were because she didn't have anyone to invite. After a time when co-workers had extended friendship to her only because they wanted to grill her about the Garrett House Murders, Cassandra had refrained from socialising with anyone else from work, too untrusting to believe anyone actually wanted friendship. Prior to that she hadn't had any friends because she had spent a few months away from Miami in Cuba and had lost contact with the few acquaintances she had had.

Hell, if Cassandra was honest with herself she knew she had always struggled with friends because she could never invite any of them home as she wasn't allowed and her stepfather scared them off when she risked bringing a friend home. Even when Cassandra had moved out of Garrett House her stepfather had still been a shadow in her life. Additionally, she hadn't gone to college and had married young and worked unsociable hours as a night club dancer, all of which had hampered her chances at finding a social life. Friends had just seemed to skip her by.

"Really, you'd be comfortable with Yelina going?" Cassandra pried as she fiddled with her hair. "I mean I like her and I think it'd be fun to see what she's like on cocktails but she is Rick's ex."

Natalia nodded and glanced down at her cup briefly, breathing in the welcome odour of warm coffee before shifting her stare onto the girls. It was true, Yelina was Rick's ex but she had been there for him when his family had been massacred and had been very supportive with Marissa, things which Natalia couldn't ignore. The woman still continued to offer her support to them and she was the widow of Horatio's brother and mother to his niece, so she was always going to be a prominent figure in their lives.

"She's practically family to you," Natalia reminded Cassandra as she returned her stare to her, "and I like her too."

"True and Calleigh, would she want to go? Isn't she close with Eric?" Cassandra queried.

Natalia nodded again. "She is but I asked and she said it's been a long time since she's had a girls night and she'd love to." Natalia gave the blonde a reassuring smile. "She also said she'd really like to get to know you better. She is close with Eric but she isn't going to let him influence her. She's very fond of Horatio and eager to know his future wife."

Cassandra smiled and nodded. "Well I could do with a night out," she agreed, "it's been a long time for me too."

Natalia's smile widened. "Good, so how about this Saturday?"

Cassandra was surprised at the suggestion but she smiled and said, "you've been planning this then?"

"Yes, of course, I've got the venue picked, just need to ring and book a VIP section."

Cassandra laughed. "Well I'd love to."

"Great, well we'll all meet here first and we'll do dinner as well," Natalia said eagerly.

"Wow um an expensive night then," Cassandra retorted awkwardly as her smile creased slightly with worry.

"Cassie you're the bride, if you pay for anything that night it's an insult," Natalia retorted sternly.

Cassandra pushed back her hair with both hands and sighed. "Sorry, it's just...I think Kyle and Eric both implied I was a gold digger." She gave a forced laugh. "Tanned, blonde female with barely anything to her name marrying an older man, I guess I can see why they'd think that," she mocked herself bitterly. "Suppose I should be grateful I don't check blue eyes as well."

Natalia stretched out a hand across the table to squeeze one of Cassandra's. "Honey don't say that," she implored, "that's not who you are. You've been a hard worker the whole time I've known you and you're brave and tough as well. You and Horatio are an odd match but you're perfect in your way. You've made him happy in a way I don't think anyone thought he could be again and I know he makes you happy, you're smiling right now because I mentioned him," she added as she smiled.

Cassandra blushed faintly as she realised she was smiling at the mention of Horatio. "He lets me be me, warts and all, and nothing phases him. I love the small smile he gives me when he knows it's all I need sometimes to keep going." She giggled. "I love the competitive side that slips out when Rick's around because it shows he's human. I love how he always pushes to see the right thing done no matter what he's against, how he never lets a problem go, maybe it's dormant for a while but never extinct until justice is done. When he's around I feel safer and I feel like maybe even with everything that's happened to me it's okay because we can still be happy."

Natalia nodded along as she thought similar things about Rick. "Well there you go, you know why you're marrying him Cassie, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks."

Cassandra gave the woman a sincere smile. "You're right," she agreed. "So, what venue do you have planned for Saturday?"

"Ah," Natalia raised her hand and shook a finger at the blonde, "that's going to be a surprise."

Cassandra laughed. "Alright, well at least let me put a reminder on my phone."

She swung her bag up onto the table, opened it and hunted for her phone.

"Hmm what's this?" Cassandra pondered curiously as she tugged out a piece of folded up card. She turned it over, perplexed as it was blank, just an off-white, rectangular piece of card folded together. Curious, she unwrapped it on the table.

Natalia was shocked as she watched Cassandra's face turn an odd shade of pallid grey and her dark eyes filled with confusion and horror.

Cassandra blinked at the word on display, smeared onto the card in something red, ink or some other substance, what it was she had no idea.

"Oh my God," the blonde said in a quiet horror as her eyes were able to take in enough to let her realise what the word read.

"Cassie?" Natalia queried worriedly.

Concerned, Natalia stood up from her seat and moved beside Cassandra to take in what was on the card.

Cassandra just sat staring at it in a horrified silence.

Murderer, the word was there in bold, block, red letters. Natalia was horrified as she stared at it, wondering if it was some cruel prank or a threat or if the card was even meant for Cassandra.

Cassandra's hand quivered slightly as she continued to stare down at the accusing word as she replayed one of the most horrific moments of her life over and over in her mind. It came so clearly she could smell the blood again.

The CSI side kicked in for Natalia first and she hastened to grab a ziplock bag from a drawer and a rubber glove. Holding the glove rather than donning it, she used its rubber edges to block her fingertips as she plucked up the card and pushed into the bag before sealing it up. Now that the item was protected, she switched back into friend mode and hurried to Cassandra's side.

The blonde had tears streaking down her cheeks as her trembling worsened. "I didn't mean to," she babbled, "God I really, really didn't!"

Marissa and Annabelle looked over in wide eyed surprise, worried and scared over Cassandra's sudden crying.

Natalia stretched up a hand to her friend's back before turning sharply as she heard footsteps.

Rick entered the kitchen in a charge, his pace picking up as he heard the crying.

"What the hell's going on?" he queried bluntly as he looked at the pair in confusion.

Cassandra was shaking her wildly and murmuring 'no', stretching the word into a long wail as she raised one hand to her mouth in an attempt to stifle her own voice.

Natalia looked back at her partner silently, unsure what to say. "It just happened," she confessed. "Cassie found a note in her bag," she gestured to the offending piece of card still resting on the table.

Rick paced over to it and took it in with a frown.

"I didn't...I didn't mean to," Cassie repeated as she shook her head frantically, "the blood was everywhere, I was just so scared, I just didn't want him to hurt anyone!" She started to cry.

Natalia stepped back to let Rick take a hold of his sister.

Rick spied the girls' worried glances as they sat frozen on the couch, transfixed in fear as Cassandra's groans grew louder. His dark stare darted back to his sister and he knew a cluster headache was imminent for her.

"Cassie come on," he said in a mixture of sternness and pleading, "stop crying." He reached out a hand to her but she tensed up and shook her head as she raised her hands up to push into her hair.

"Cassie you'll give yourself a headache," Rick warned.

"I didn't want to kill him," she sobbed out, "I have nightmares all the time, God I didn't mean to do it!"

"Shhh," Rick attempted to hush her as he shot another wary gaze over to the girls, conscious of what they might hear. Marissa had no idea that her aunt had been forced to kill a madman who was also Marissa's father.

Natalia followed Rick's stare and hurried over to the girls with a forced smile.

"Cassie come on," Rick said quietly, "not here."

Cassandra let out a weak snivel. "I'm sorry Rick," she said hoarsely.  
"You don't have to be sorry." Rick pushed her back slightly from the table and took in her red blotched face complete with bloodshot, teary eyes and a glint of snot at her nostrils. He gave her a slight grimace. "Let's get you cleaned up. Where are your glasses?"

"I lost them," she grumbled, "God this day."

"Girls, let's go watch some cartoons for a moment," Natalia suggested.

"What's wrong with Aunt Cassie?" Marissa pried worriedly.

"She's just feeling a little sick," Natalia retorted, "but it's nothing to worry about. Uncle Rick is going to help her. Now come on, you've both been good and done your homework so it's time for cartoons."

Natalia waved the girls up from the couch and herded them out of the room and to the living room.

Rick waited a couple of minutes before he urged Cassandra up from her seat and directed her after them, taking her through to the downstairs bathroom.

The blonde walked with her cocked to the right side, wincing as she pressed her palm up against her right temple. There were sweat beads forming on her brow as she felt a rush of heat rush to her head coupled with the first pangs of pain.

Cassandra sat on the closed toilet seat with a groan and another sniffle.

Rick ran a cloth under the sink before handing it down to her. "You get cleaned up," he said quietly, "I'll see you back in the kitchen."

He hesitated before leaving and stared down at her seriously. "Cassie you did nothing wrong," he said firmly. "You protected Marissa and I, and if I could have I would have done the same. There isn't a day goes by that I don't regret not being the one to do it."

Cassandra let out another soft sob. "I know," she said hoarsely, "but it never feels right." She hugged her torso, inadvertently pressing the damp cloth against it and sobbed again.

"I do understand," Rick said quietly, "I've killed in self-defence too."

He thought briefly of a corrupt police officer and detective that he had been forced to gun down before shaking off the unwanted memory.

"You did what you had to," he assured.

Rick stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. He winced when he heard his sister start to cry in earnest but figured he was better giving her a moment of privacy to let out her troubled grief. He frowned as he considered what had provoked it all, the single sinister word on a mysterious card in the kitchen. He paced back to it, tugging out his phone as he prepared to call Horatio.

* * *

Jack glanced from the corpse to Tobias and then over to the CSIs. The body's eye sockets were still smouldering slightly and the detective found the smell nauseating. His sympathies went out to the young woman who had found the body. She was still crying against Tobias who cradled her awkwardly against his shirt having giving up questioning her for the moment.

They were on a beach, in a secluded spot shaded slightly by palm trees with a rough terrain as wild grass, stone and soil mingled with sand. The salty smell of the ocean wasn't enough to overpower the stench of charred flesh and the soft lull of the early evening waves crashing against the sand couldn't quieten the wails of a traumatised woman.

"Do you think it's another victim?" Jack quipped at last as his stare focused on Horatio.

"What makes you think that?" CSI Wolfe pried. He was on the ground, closer to the victim than Jack wished to be, taking photographs of the coals on the victim's ruined eyes. The coals had been jammed in there tightly.

"Well," Jack began awkwardly as he rubbed at his scruffy hair and stared at the body once more, "we had an angel, now we've a demon. Both victims left naked with traces of blood on them and damaged eyes." He alluded to the red horns and pointed tail that had been attached to the figure, a male left nude just as Kara Watkins had been with a splash of blood on his chest depicting an inverted cross. "And he's bruising about the neck, just like Miss Watkins," Jack added.

Horatio gave a small, thin smile. He was pleased with Jack's summary and knew Rick would be proud at how far the former narcotics detective had come.

"Should we ring Lieutenant Stetler?" Jack queried as he glanced over at the redhead.

Horatio was about to respond when he felt the buzz of his mobile against his leg before it sounded. He tugged it out of his trouser pocket. "No need," he said calmly before he answered. "Hello Rick."

"Horatio you need to come round to mine," Rick retorted bluntly.

Horatio frowned as he heard the anxiety in Rick's voice. "What's wrong?" he queried quietly.

Ryan and Jack both looked worried at Horatio's question.

"It's Cassie," Rick confessed, "she found a note in her bag saying murderer, it gave her a panic attack and then one of her cluster headaches. I've given her an injection, she'd none in her bag," he added in a grumble, "but you should come, she's very upset."

Horatio was shocked as he tried to take in what Rick was saying and wondered at the note. Murderer? He was confused at first but then he thought of Josh Silverstone, the psychotic man who had done so much damage to Rick and Cassandra both physically and mentally that it was a wonder they had survived him. That was in part down to Cassandra killing him in self-defence after he had shown up at Natalia's house, crazed and determined to murder Rick.

"Rick," Horatio sounded out the man's name softly, "we've got another victim here."

Rick let out a curse as Horatio had expected he would. "Damn it, I can't leave her," Rick muttered. "Natalia has the girls and Cassie really isn't good Horatio."

Horatio lowered his phone and glanced to Ryan, knowing he was about to ask something unorthodox. Hell, it was downright reckless really given Tobias and Jack were still wet behind the ears for homicide.

"Ryan, something's happened with Cassie," Horatio informed his subordinate, "I need to go see her. I'll give Calleigh and Frank a ring, can you handle things until they get here?"

Ryan nodded reassuringly even as his brown eyes filled with worry. "Is she hurt?" he pried. Ryan had always had a soft spot for Cassandra Silverstone, before Horatio had dated her he had considered asking her out and even now he sometimes still regretted not doing it while he had the chance.

"No," Horatio retorted, "but she needs me." The redhead was startled by his own honesty as he raised the phone back up to his face. "Rick I'm coming now," he said seriously. "Ryan is going to take charge here."

"Alright," Rick responded bluntly.

Horatio hung up the phone and glanced over to the detectives. "I'll give Frank and Calleigh a call, treat this as any other case, at the moment we're just speculating it's linked to the Kara Watkins case," he said sternly.

Tobias, now holding the woman loosely with one tired arm as she continued to burrow against his shirt although her sobs had fallen silent, gave Horatio a sombre look as he nodded.

"Let us know how Cassie is," the blonde detective said seriously.

Horatio knew Tobias' concern came from a good place but there was a small prickle of irritation in him anyway. The redhead had always thought himself above petty jealously but sometimes when Tobias and Cassandra were together or one asked about the other he had a small twang of envy. He had no fear of Cassandra leaving him for Tobias and knew her feelings for her ex were strictly platonic but he couldn't help his irrational emotions towards the homicide detective.

"I will," Horatio assured. He walked off, dialling Frank as he headed back to his waiting car.

* * *

Rick jumped up from the dinner table wordlessly and moved at a sprint for the living room. Annabelle tensed and gave a startled gasp when he bolted from the table whilst Marissa simply looked confused. For a moment Annabelle was wary of danger and terrified that Rick had left them to it. Her bulbous eyes scanned the room anxiously prompting Natalia to reach over with one hand and squeeze the girl's hand gently.

"It's okay," Natalia assured as she gave the girl a warm smile, "he's just checking Aunt Cassie."  
It was a guess on Natalia's part, she had been just as surprised by Rick's sudden departure from dinner and was wondering if he'd heard something she couldn't. Her right ear was humming so loudly she could hardly hear a thing.

"Eat your dinner girls," she ordered softly as she pulled her hand back.

Natalia knew it was going to be a long night and dreaded how difficult it would be trying to get the girls to sleep. Cassandra, through no fault of her own, had the household disrupted and in a state of panicked unease. The children were terrified both for the young woman and of whatever had upset her in the first place.

The blonde had initially occupied the couch beside the dining table but then her cluster headache had come so Rick had persuaded the girls to their rooms to play while he treated Cassandra in the living room with an injection before leaving her to rest on the sofa. After that, Rick, Natalia and the girls had returned to the kitchen for dinner.

Rick hesitated at the living room door as he arrived outside it. He listened for the banging that had disturbed him, trying to determine if it was against the wooden door or a wall. There was a soft thump and he determined the vibration came through the wall. A loud wail followed.

Rick opened the door and hastened into the darkened room. The blinds of the high window had been drawn and the light was off. He reached for the wall switch instinctively, illuminating the room instantly.

"Damn it Cassie," he muttered with a pained look.

Cassandra was in the throes of a walking nightmare, pacing about wailing and moaning about blood as she wrung her hands before smacking her head against the wall. There was already a bump forming on her brow and her nose had blood trickling from it.

Rick winced and cursed again when she began to knock her head against the wall repeatedly while yelling 'no' over and over.

He hurried to her, grabbing her despite her protesting groans and attempting to restrain her as she fought against him.

"Cassie wake up!" he snapped.

The doorbell rang and another curse escaped Rick.

A few minutes passed before it rang again and Rick realised Natalia wasn't going to answer it.

"Cassandra wake up!" he yelled as he gave her a shake by her shoulders.

The blonde jerked free violently. "Blood, too much," she moaned, "in the trees, no stay away!" She raised her hands defensively and screamed without warning.

Natalia heard the scream and appeared at a run, looking into the scene with wide eyes. "Rick what's going on?" she demanded.

Rick glanced over his shoulder in irritation as the doorbell sounded again and again. "Damn it get the door Nat!" he ordered with a wave of his hand.

Natalia looked confused, she couldn't hear the bell. She stared at Cassandra who was still stumbling back. "Watch out!"

Natalia's warning was in vain. Cassandra staggered back against the coffee table and fell over it with another scream.

Rick dashed forward to her, reaching as she writhed on the floor in confusion and pain, still babbling about blood.

Natalia took a step to help as the doorbell continued to sound.

"Get the door damn it!" Rick roared out angrily as he tried to get Cassandra upright again, certain she'd have a bump on the back of her head to match the one on the front.

Startled by Rick's show of temper, Natalia stepped back out and headed for the door. She had a look at the camera panel to see Horatio standing there and deactivated the alarm quickly before unlocking the door to let him in.

"Where is she?" Horatio queried worriedly as he stepped into the house. He tensed at the groans of pain and hurried down the hall without waiting for Natalia's response.

Natalia closed and locked the door again, setting the alarm as a precaution before she retreated to the girls. She knew they would be terrified and sighed as she pushed a hand through her hair and hoped she could convince them that Cassandra was just having a nightmare.

Cassandra's eyes opened, at first confused and then alarmed before they pooled with tears. She saw her brother staring down at her with concern.

"Rick? Oh God Rick I couldn't find the way out," she babbled. "I kept trying to open the door but my hands were wet with blood and I couldn't...I couldn't get a grip."

"Jesus," Rick muttered wearily as he flopped back against the bottom of the couch for support and stretched his legs out on the floor before him.

Rick's wary dark gaze darted up to Horatio as he appeared in the doorway.

Horatio hurried in, quick to move to Cassandra's other side. She was panting hard and her eyes were wide, full of terror and confusion. His cerulean gaze filled with worry as he spied her bumps and the blood smeared about her nostrils.

The redhead tugged out a handkerchief and offered it to her as he crouched beside her. "Cassie what's happened?" he queried gently.

Cassandra looked to Horatio with surprise before the tears started to pour down her cheeks. She shook her head. "I don't...I don't know, my head hurts, I..."

Horatio stretched his free hand out to press his palm against her brow, he found it blazing with heat. "I think we need to get you a damp cloth and some water," he advised.

"I'll do that," Rick offered as he scraped to his feet. "You get her back on the sofa," he ordered.

Horatio pushed back a stray strand of Cassandra's blonde hair and gave her a concerned stare.

The blonde flinched as Horatio reached out to dab at her bloodstains with the handkerchief and she turned her head away with a tremble.

"Cassie what's wrong?" he queried.

"I...I don't know why this is happening," she said sorrowfully. "Everything is supposed to be good, I'm supposed to be happy but things keep going wrong."

"Sweetheart you need to tell me what's gone wrong," Horatio compelled her. He stretched forward and started dabbing at her nostrils again despite her head being turned away from him.

"I...I lost my glasses," she admitted, "they should've been in my locker at work but they weren't and then there was this note in my bag." She reached a hand up to press against her temple as she shuddered.

"I smell blood," she said with a shudder of disgust.

Rick re-appeared and was quick to kneel down and offer her out a glass of water. "Here."

Cassandra accepted the glass and took a few sips before abandoning it on the floor. She squeezed her eyes closed with a wince and brought her palm up to her brow briefly. "Fuck," she cursed out softly before dropping the hand by her side again.

The blonde was soaked in sweat and her right eye was running badly, enough for it to sting as Cassandra rubbed at it.

Horatio held out a hand for the damp cloth in Rick's other hand. Rick surrendered it to him and leaned back as the redhead pressed the cloth against the blonde's forehead.

"Let's just take a moment," Horatio suggested calmly.

Cassandra closed her eyes as she welcomed the damp coolness against her brow. Her hand reached trembling for Horatio's and he abandoned the handkerchief to take it in his own and hold it reassuringly.

"It's alright Cassie," he reassured, "I'm here, whatever is going on we'll figure it out and get through it together."


End file.
